eet en 
ne ar * 
ales 
a 


pest = 


Laan eet ee eal 


ina eaten 
er ete ON orl 
eae nt Stl 


ee 


ed 


a le ht ~ 
Soyecu a etna 

: 7 > er ee 
rent eer - =e" 


DUKE 
UNIVERSITY 


DIVINITY SCHOOL 
LIBRARY 


a ‘ 4 Mi i F . \ ry 
a ea ne ee 


igre Te 


i 
ey 
on | , 
~ i 
1 ’ 
ot 
! 
‘ 
' 
j 
; 
1 
I 
i 
i 
oe 
{ 
a | 


/ 


‘= 
BOOK | 
AND Beit 
SLAVERY 
IRRECONCILABLE. 
ie 
ANIMADVERSIONS 


UPON 


DR. SMITI’S PHILOSOPHY. - 


,| BY GEORGE BOURNE. 


but now PAaG CST Waa every where, to repent.” 
Ax . rat 9 CC aN Perer and Pavt. 
> age 


es 


©, “7. ia ——— 
y OaparrbaB Er ana: : 
PRINTED BY 3. M. SANDERSON & CO. 


1816, 


‘ 


“I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as ‘did also your» 
rulers ; and the times of this i ignorance GOD winked at;° 


(AND 


4 oS 


? 5 
| O, ILLUMINE! o, REGENERATE! BLIND, 


= en 


SPIRIT OF TIE LORD! 
WHO DIDST ANOINT 
JESUS 
OF NAZARETH, 

TO PREACH 


DELIVERANCE 
TO THE 


CAPTIVES: 


CORRUPT OPPRESSORS! 


INTRO DUCTION, 


: ae 


Raita sR 


i MIS AMINE the character of Religious 
) rofessors ; ask, does consistency prevail? do 
Ymen believe the word of God? and do they 
“exhibit a conformity between their creed and 
‘their actions ? 
|| ‘The Mosaic Law declares every Slave-hol- 
der a THIEF ; Paul classes him among the 
highest criminals; the Preshyterian Confes. 
sion of Faith asserts, that he is the most guilty 
‘ot all thieves ; the Methodist Discipline avows, 
“that no man can have a sincere desire to 
‘flee from the wrath to come,” unless he re- 
fuses to enslave, buy and sell human flesh ; 
** the supreme law of the land” formally pro- 
‘hounces that his practice is totally ‘irrecon- 
‘cilable wih the principles of justice and 
humanity’’; and the Bills of Rights promulge, 
‘hat the immunities of man which are indis- 
perisable to the possession of life, the acquisi- 
tion of property, and the enjoyment of hap- 
piness, are natural, inherent and inalienable. 
‘Therefore, every man who holds Slaves and 
who pretends to be a Christian or a Republi- 
an, is either an incurable Idiot who cannot 
distinguish good from evil, or an obdurate 
“Sinner who resolutely defies every social, moral, 
,and divine requisition. Evangelical charity 
Anduces the hope that he is an ignoramusy 
te ; 
4 : 
et ae 


=< = > 


a er tt a em a 


} 


“ 


‘join stealing and honesty, or dare he admonish} | 


INTRODUCION. 
“Point to me the mab | 
Who will not lift his voice against the trade 

In human souls and blood, and I pronounce, ; 
‘That he nor loves his country, nor his God. thi 
Is he a Christian then? who holds in bonds 

Ilis brethren ; cramps the vigour of their minds-; 
Usurps entire dominion o’er their wills, 


i 


{ 
oe: 
{ 


Bars from their souls the light of moral day, 


Yhe image of the great Eternal Spirit ue 
Obliterating thence ? Before your God, bE 
Whose holy eye pervades the secret depths 

Of every heart, do you who hold inthrall’d 

Your fellow-being’s liberty, believe 
‘That you are guiltless of a DAMNING CRIME? ail: 
Be undeceived—and cleanse from guilt and blood 
Your crimson’d conscience, and polluted hands.” * 


But “‘it is better to be moderate in our op-.|§ 
position to Slavery ; and not to make too strong 
un attack upon the Devil.” Moderation a- | 
gainst sin is an absurdity. Can any man con-;| j 


i 
i 


ae 


a headstrong transgressor partially to desist 9 
from his ungodly practices ? Such sermoniz:: | 9} 
ing would be approved by every reprobate. | 


“They call themsclves moderate men; but upon 
this subject, 1 neither fecl, nor desire to feel, any 
thing liké the sentiment of moderation. To talk of /§ 
inoderation upon this matter, reminds me of a passage 
in Middleton’s Cicero. “Z'o enter a man’s house, and 
kill him, his wife and family, in the night, is certainly 
a most heinous crime, and deserving of death. But tc '\ 
break ofien his house, to murder him, his wife, anc @) 
ali his children, in the night, may still be right, fro 
vided it is done wijh moderation.” -‘Yhis is absurd— — 
and yet it is not so absurd, as to say slavery may be — 
carried on with moderation. For if you cannot break § 


— 
ssanehoatatpee 


——+ 
*Deniel Bryan. 


{NTRODUCTION. 2 


into a single house, if you cannot rob and murder a 
single man, with moderation ; with what moderation 
can you break up a whole country, can you pillage 
an‘! destroy a whole nation? Indeed, in an affair of 
this nature, I do not profess moderation! It is a 
question of simple justice. Notwithstanding which, 
they plead that moderation in arranging robbery and 
murder may be very preper and useful.” * 


Our timidity is powerfully addressed, by 
the enumeration of the varied enmity which 
accompanies the declaration of truth unmutil- 
ated and unadulterated. No stronger evidence 
can be obtained, that a man’s conscience is 
guilty and that his heart is corrupt, than when 
the faithful exposition of the BOOK excites 
his wrath. 1. 

The denunciations of the sacred volume 
must not be mitigated : the predominance of 
vicious tempers and the consequent exhibition 
of unholy conduct are totally incompatible 
with the instructions and the example of Ji sus 
of Nazareth and his Apostles ; a direct and 
incessant violation of the eighth commandment 
cannot be compounded with the rectitude 


* Charles James Fox. 


1. Reformation must be put at some distance to 
pleasc. Its greatest favourers love it better in the abe 
Straci than in the substance. When any old prejudice 
of their own, or any interest that they value is touched, 
they become scrupulous, captious, and every man Ifas 
his separate exception. Thus between the resistance 
of power, and the unsysiematical process of popularity, 
the reformer -is.hissed off the stage, both by friends 
and foes. a8s ahiak vis - .. Edmund . Burke. 


beers VAY mith of 48 $6 


+ 


G INTRODUCTION. 


which Christianity enjoins: the worst of all 
Thieves is not the most devout Believer : that 
infernal chemistry which extracts the essen- 
tial qualitics of genuine religion, and then com. 
bines_ the caput mortuum with constant crime, 
that it may be palatable to an ignorant or 
careless conscience, must be opposed: and. the 
complicated enormity of kidnapping, and the 
hypocrisy which he displays, who while he is 
a perpetual Thief, wishes to be honoured as 
a Christian ; who while he preaches and rules 
the Church, steals his acighbour, and dooms 
his Brother toa wretched andendless servi- 
tude :—must in plain Scriptural language be 
reprobrated, ‘ 

“Ye Gospel-Promulgaters | why so dumb 
Upon this solemn theme, to which each ray 
Ot Revelation points? And has the world 
Such fascination, such corrupting. power, 
And vile intimidation’s force, as thus 
Yo paralyze the’ energies divine 
OF Satan’s combatants, that they will yield 
¥o his blood-fedsting hosts without one blow ?”’ * 

These pages are published with no un- 
christian sensibilities. 2. But Gospel charity 


"Daniel Bryan. 


3. The Apostolic admonitions were recollected. 

Wherefore, fiutting away lying, sfieak every man 
rruth with his neighbour ; ‘fur we are members one of 
ancther. Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun 
fo down ufion your wrath: neither give filace to the 
Devil. Let him that stole, steal no more: but rather 
Jet hm labour, working with his hands that which ie 
wood, that he may have to give to him that needed. 
Ephesians 4, 25—29. 4 


requires not, that we should believe u die to be 


truth, or injustice to be probity, or that he who 


| stealeth his brother, makes merchandize of him, 


ah ee 


4 
t 
‘ 
a 
a 
4 


sells him or if he be found in his hand, whom 
the Word of God proclaims to be a Thief, 
is an honest man and a Christian. Slavery is 
condemned ; the uprightness of those pretences 
which Oppressors offer, why they should. be 
considered Christians, is the subject of investi- 
gation ; and the melioration of the Church and 
of our Country was both the motive which 
produced, and the object which was desired 
by this publication The contest is for the 
sacred cause of Truth ; and however severe 
it may be when individualized in its applica. 
| tion, the sentiments are in full unison with the 
Holy Scriptures, and with every honest Man’s 


_ unsophisticated convictions ; therefore, to tem. 


8 


» porize would be criminal. ‘A rough truth is 
) better than a smooth falschood.” ‘That. delin. 
| quent is peculiarly guilty in the judgment of the 
Book, who cally evil good, bitter sweet, dark. 
ness Light, or who endeavours so to commingle 


them, that no difference is discernible between 


the requisitions of Religion and the solicita- 


» Uons of vice ; and thus, while men pretend or 
really desire to fulfil, the divine injunctions, 


i 


jhands.” Their guilt against God and Man 


No desire is felt to propitiate Profes- 


| they are numbered among the ‘Transgressors. 
i 
1 


sing Christians, while they steal ‘* souls and 


Who hold Slaves in Columbia, is exactly equal 


INTRODUCTAON. v 


a INTRODUCTION. 


with his criminality, who sails to Congo, and 
kidnaps a cargo of Negros: and it is alto- 
gether a burlesque upon evcry thing sacred 
for a Man-robber to pretend to Christianity ; 
and far more dishonourable and injurious to 


the Church, to permit him to preach, and rule 


in the spiritual affuirs of immortals. 

Many persons to whom the severest cen- 
sures apply as Slave-holders, possess other 
estimable qualities; but can that man be @ 
Christicn who enslaves his coloured neighbour, 
who unmercifully whips her, although far ad- 
vanced in pregnancy. who gives her no com- 
fort of any species for her services, and then | 
sells her with her offspring for an increased 

rice. on acconnt of the children whom he | 
had kidvapped ? Such men would immure > 
ther Fellow-citizens in bondage, and ingulf 

then in similar nisery- He who admits not, 

that this is the real nature and oper ition of in- 

naie depravity, has never known the plague 

of his own heart, and is not a penitent Tes 
deemed sinner. 

"The most obdurate adherents of Slavery are 
Preachers of the Gospei and Officers and Mem- | 
bers of the church. A Son of Belial is easily 
convinced ; he offers no palliative ; he de- 
nounces, although he perpetuates the evil; but 
conceiving himself absolved from all moral obli- 
gation, lic is desirous to participate in the gain 
as long as it cen he grasped : but Christians » j 


defend ,Negro-steating ; they marshal the ex-) 


ste aaa 


AcE 


EPR FO ew es Oe ea 


a 


50 Ricca htegee 


t, 


INTRODUCTION. 9 


amples of men who lived not under the moral 

code dispensed by Moses; they misinterpret | 
varied regulations of his law, and thereby trans- 
form truth into error, and the dictates of justice i} 
into the vilest improbity ; they claim the silence 
of our Lord and his Apostles and Evangelists, . 
as a proof that Slave-holders then were t- 
nocent ; and they affirm that no New Testa- 
ment command or denunciation is directed a- 
rainst mvoluntary servitude. 3. ‘These wrest 
the scriptures unto their own destruction ; being | 
led away with the error of the wicked.* Yo 4 
tolerate Slavery or to join in its practice is an 
insufferable crime which tarnish-s every other 
good quality. For whosoever shall keep the 
law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty 
of all:+ and it is duplicate malignity ; the 
word of God is transmuted into indulgence 
for sin ; infidels and worldlings are encouraged 

to believe that Christianity is a mere decey tion, 
when its Lxpositors and Disciples contend for 
“injustice and inhumanity” by the Book; 
what blasphemy ! and slavery, with its abettors, 

is ‘ta mill-stone hanged about the neck” of } 
the church, from which she must be loosened, | 
or she will “ be drowned in the depth of the 
sca.” 


3. This is the substance of a Sermon which was w 
lately delivered in defence, of Slavery. What refined 
notions of honesty ! What joy to Man-stealers ! What 
a triumph for the Devil! Alas ! 


* 2 Peter 3, 16, 17. + James 2. 10, 


Ja IKTRODUCTIOn. 


_ _ The flagitious acts concerning Slaves whicli 

¥ Christians daily and publicly perpetrate without 
remorse, are a just subject of animadversion. 
Repentance, reformation, and restitution are 

much more suitable for a Slave-driver, than 

the palliation of his guilt, or excuses for his 
enormous crime ; and it is the heighth of de- 

lusion, to suppose him, an “ acceotable”’ Be., 

liever, who detains his fellow-man in the most 
dreadful vassalage. But if the most guilty and 

V' daring transgressor be sought, he is a Gospel. 
Minister, who solemnly avows his belief of the 

ie Pr-sbyterian Confession of Faith, or of the 
a Methodist Discipline, and notwithstanding him- 
self is a Negro. Pedlar, who steals, buys, sells, 
and keeps his brethren in Slavery, or supports 
' by his taciturnity, or his smooth prophesying, 
if or his direct defence, the Christian Professor 
th who unites in the kidnapping trade. Truth 
{ forces the declaration, thatevery Church. Of. 
it] ficer or member who is a Slave-holder, re- 
cords himself by his own creed, a Hypocrite !4. 
| E.xtracts from various writers are incorpo- 
|| “rated with this disquisition : they illustrate and 
a fortify both the doctrines which are advanced, 
and the arguments by which they are co‘rob- 
erated. The most enlightened Theologians, 


| \\e 4. No discussion of the African Slave-Trade is ine : 
troduced that was totally abolished in 1808: andcan 
never be re-established. Hence, it was unnecessary, 
yi either to display its enormities, or to oppose its un- 
parallelied gboininations, oe 


InraopucTicH. li 


Moralists, Civilians, Politicians, and Patriots 


; of ali denominations, climates, countries. and 


' languages have uniformly coincided with the 
BOOK ; have expressed similar sentiments 


upon the impolicy, the injustice, the cruelty, 
and the anti-christianity of kidnapping in Africa 
aud American Slavery ; and have thus con- 
signed the original contrivers of this infernal 
machination, and_ the -successive generations 
of those who have participated in its crimes 
and unhallowed pelf, to merited ignominy, and 
execration universal and everiasting. 

No argument is requisite to justily a work, 
whichhonestly defends the rights of man, a. 
gainst the arbitrary exactions of inhuman Cainie 
tes, and unjust Rehoboamites ; which Opposes 
“fa licensed system of wholesale robbery and 
murder,” and maintains the eternally para. 


Mount claims of eguity and mercy ; which, 


by developing the absurdity. of all pretensions 
to Pure and undefiled Religion in him whose 
whole life is a ceaseless rotation of stealing 
and cruelty, points the path of duty to the 
upright inquirer, and exonerates the church 
from the chee of sanctioning “ the highest 
degree of theft 3? and which expostulates with 
those whose diurnal practice is a continual 
violation of the spirit and letter of the moral 
law, a flagrant departure from the steps of the 
Redeemer and his primitive Servants, and an 


open disgrace to Republicanism and Chris- 
tianity. 


19 ANTRODUCTION, 


What shall an I’ xpositor of the Truth do ? 
dare he connive at evils which obstruct the pros- 
perity of the church? ‘Though convinced of | |i 
the absolute impossibility 1o reconcile the | 
bondage and trafic of men with evangelical ||} 
philanthrophy ; shall he hold his peace, and || 
refuse to illuminate the ignorance, to remove | 
the prejudices, to combat the injustice, and to || jj 
expunge the inconsistency of his professing ||} 
Chiistian Brethren ? \ 

He has calmly weighed the consequences; ||| 
he has deliberated upon the results; he has ||§ 
foreseen the effect of the plain and earnest de- ||| 
claration of divine ‘I'ruth; he is convinced, ||% 
that most persons will become his enemics; || 

\} he fecls the workings of that fear of man |\@ 
which bringeth a snare ; and he cannot de- | jj 
velope the varied agitation with which his heart |} 
is conflicted under a review of all the extensive |/)) 
ae censure which the "TRUTH involves ; incul- 

14, pating persons of all stations, characters, and 

of almost every: denomination of Christians, 

lit -and which declares them participants in | 
He “a system of incurable injustice, the complica- | 
tion of every species of iniquity, the greatest | F 
practical evil that ever has afflicted the human | § 
1) race ,and the severest and most extensive cal- | jj 
Hit: amity recorded in the history of the world” !* | 
} 


But how shall an earnest contender for ¢he , 
Faith which was once delivered to the Saints, i a 


iF ® William Pitt. 


aD 


INTRODUCTIGS. 15 


_zact? dare he cry PEACE, when God de- 
clares there is no peace? dare he deliver smooth 
. ¢hings, when God urges penitence and re- | 
|. form? can he scrutinize this mass of corrup- 
- tion, and not warn his fellow-Christians to touch 
stot, taste not, handle not 2? dare he from dread 
. of offending, disobey the books of which he | 
| professed his belief, and to which he promised | 
@ conscientious practical conformity? And 
| will he burden his shoulders with the curse 
of handling the word of God deceitfully 2 will 
he load his conscience with the conviction, 
_ that while men are deceiving themselves, he 
") tiseS NO means to remove their destructive 
‘ delusions ? will he conceal the truth, which 
' unfold» the endless evasions and artifices of 
sin and Satan to ensnare the soul in perdition 
_ everlasting ? and dare he deny the evident, 
i ndeniably correct interpretation of the word 
‘of God, to teach the perverse disputings of 
men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, 
(that gain is godliness.t 
\ Certain repetitions of sentiment and phra- 
‘Seology were designed. It is absolutely ine 
dispensable to give the Church, precept upon 
precept, line upon line, here a little and there 
2 little, that they may go, and fall backward, 
| and be broken, and snared and taken.t A criti- 
/ cism upon this volume, will not be heard, either 
from a Thief, or JSrom him who consents with 
| him. § The permission would transform a 
— 


| {tl Timotdy 6. 8. ¢ Isaiah 28. 10—13. § Psalm 50, 18. 
i 4 
1) 3 
4% 


d 


4 In TRODUCTION. 


_Flesh-Merchant into Legislator, Judge, Jury 
man, ‘Testimony and Delinquent: and his 
opinion, especially if he be a pretended Be. || 
liever, will not be even listened to; because ||} | 
a Kidnapper or his Defender, is neither a 
Christian, nor a Presbyterian, nor a Baptist, 
nora Methodist, nor a Republican; but a Des. | 
pot, whose ‘‘ traffic in slaves is totally irre. |) 
concilable with the principles of justice and |//f 
humanity.’’ || ie 
O that this essay may remove the obloquy . || 5) 
¥ under which Religion groans, and teach us } |} 
the just estimate which we should form ofa «|[f 
Ht Slave-holder’s character! O, that Preachers, .)| 
ie Officers, and Members of the Church, |) ij 
Ht may take the alarm, and contemplate the re. «/| 7) 
Nii sult ef their silence and example! O, that 3) 
ale Nominal Disciples of Jesus may strive to main. 
Bann tain consistency, that it may no longer be an 5) 9 
ave ‘infidel reproach, ‘the is a Christian Slave. 
be holder,” alias Man stealer! and O, that other: ; 
may confederate for the contest, and Cease no! 
to combat, until Legron is exterminated from «| 9 
| the ‘Temple of Gad ! 
} Lie —*Lut hark! whence rolls that thundering peal «| 
(Which shakes astgnish’d Mammon’s glittering mounds |) 9) 
| ‘ And rouses all the ferce and ,clamorous ire to 
iat Of his tyrannic votaries? Lo? begirt 
1144 With the impervious mail of martyr’d zeal, 
ait “And golden truth, a little phalanx stands, 
‘Upon the Heaven-defended dbatteries 
Of Gospel-Law, and aims the artillery 


are 


i Tenth Article of the Treaty with Brisam,.’. 


eS Re ee 
Dip Pes > hea 


ENTHODUCSION. 


yf holy eloquence, against the dark, 

‘The massy battlements of tyranny. 

Yhence tis, that those convulsing thunders break, 
|) Which fire the sons of Avarice with rage. ) 
Persist, ye reverend Veterans ! for the cause | 

In which your hallow’d banner is unfurl’d, | 

Embraces all that makes existence dear. | 
| Undaunted band of Christian Patriots, hail ! 

_. May Victory’s bays your honour’d temples crown, 

’ And your reward be those deiights supreme 

. Which store the magazines of heavenly bliss-— 
|’ Whose melodies divine, no human ear 

- Has known; whose charms unmatch’d, no earthly eye 

' Has seen; and whose exhaustless excellence, 

\.. The mind and heart of man have ne’er conceived.” ® 


 ———— 
| 


© Daniel Bryan. : 


CHAPTER I, 


STATEMENT OF THE SUBJECT. 


“we: @ i wz 


1" i 
HE corruption of the human heart, and | f 
the deceitfulness which accompanies it are 
inconceivable. Among the various modes by 
which they are displayed, the detention of men 
in bondage indefinite, should receive unmitiga-. 
ted execration : and the priaciples upon which 
slave-holding is defended, with the characters 
of those who engage in its support, are most 
melancholy demonstrations of duplicity, and of — 
the promptitude, with which we can be delud- :)) 
ed to change the truth of God into a lie. Is it | 
Hi not a fact too alarming to be recorded without | 
| * the utmost dread, and will it not in futurity be | | 
deemed almost incredible, that a system which 
my mcludes horrors ten-fold more than Egyptian 
servitude is incorporated with most of the re/i- 
gous ! and civil institutions, which are estab- | | 
lished in the only land of freedom that cxists >” 
1) on the habitable globe ? Will sabsequent ages | 
i credit so monstrous a statement ; that Preach. | | 
ti ers of the Gospel, 1800 years after Angels had | 
_ sung, on earth, peace, good-will ta men,t were | 
characterized as proverbially devoted particip- 
a ants in all the enormities and iniquity of man- 
Stealing ? and nearly 40 years after the pro- 
mulgation of the Columbian Declaration of | | 


} t Luke 2. 14. 


STATEMENT OF TRE SUBJECT, 17 


- Independence reprobated its sef ‘evident truths, 
as unsound propositions, because in practice 
| their covetousness, and their barbarous been 
- bery of the rights of man would have rob- 


~ restrained 


That any persons should have imbibed ef-, 


-- frontery sufficient to commence and persist in 
-*an internal trade with the bodies and souls 
'}+ of men, where the ilumination of the Gospei 
_ determines our duties, responsibility, and des- 
‘tiny, is proof more than ample, of the innate 
' tendency of the human race to every moral obli- 
" quity. © Admitting that under the reign of 
Monkish superstition, an absurdity so pre- 
' posterous might have been tolerated for the 
sake of exacting the fees of penance and ab- 
~ solution; what apology shall be patiently heard. 
, at the present era, for upholding a trafic which. 
“! nécessurily includes every species of iniquity, 
~and which is the offspring of an unhallowed. 
‘avarice that conducrs to hell ? 
/) ‘The cunning and_ pertinacity with which, 
{ men, who have not the plea of ignorance to: 
“J excuse their aberrations maintain and justily 
‘ their ungodly: praetices, is a_ most lamentable: 
‘ aad irrefragable testimony of the vitiated pro- 
|< pensitics of the soul. But although, through 
i the Justre of the Holy. Scriptures, itis scarcely 
_, possible to discover an individual. who will 
j-ealiniy’ pallate the evil nature of those more 
flagrant transgressions of the moral law, those: 
plebcian violations of decency which are €. 


\}) 
i 


eta a 


18 STATEMEST 


2 een yee emp mn rere penne ste ati a DN ce kira en pa weep en 
% . = ae CRE ee ee Se 


qually debasing and disgusting ; yet, they | 
who denounce these crimes and the perpe- 
trators of them in terms of unqualified re- 
ana with equal zeal will excuse more | 
ashionable sins, especially if they are menaced | 
with the consequences of their guilt. 

The conduct of Religious Professors and _ 
rulers loudly demands the severest castigation, 
and renders the defence of those who adhere 
to the truth, doubly necessary. It requires 
more than Christian charity to allow many per- 
sons the characteristic of sincerity ; for the 
contradiction is so vast, that if the highest int- 
crests of the human family were not connected, 
their discrepancy would excite ridicule: but 
as man’s eternal doom is indissolubly combi- | 
ned with the rectitude of his present practice, 
the heart is filled with the keenest compassion 
for that obduracy which rejects truth, for 
that blindness which transmutes its individu- 
alizing qualities, and for that hypocrisy, which 
to evade scriptural censures, distorts the book | 
into a sanction of the vices that it unequiv- — 
ocally condemns. i 

Human inconsistency and foily cannot be 
developed in a stronger light, than by a dis- 
passionate review of the multifarious artifices _ 
which are adopted to veil the horrors of Slavery, | 
and the evasions by which the charge that } 
they are the most enormous sinners against ©; 
God and man, is repelled. Had this com- | 
pound of all corruption no connection with | 


oo: 


thei 


OF THF SUNJECT. i9 


the church of Christ; however deleterions 
are the effects of it in political socicty, how. 
ever necessary is its immediate and total ab- | | 
olition, and however pregnant with danger to | 
the Union, is the prolongation of the system ; 
to Legislators and Civilians, the redress of the 
evil would have been committed. But Slavery 
is the golden Calf, which has been clevated a- 
mong the Tribes, and before it, the Priests 
and the iIders and the nominal sons of Israel, 
eat, drink, rise up to play, worship and sacri- 
fice* —there are Balaams among us, who pro- 
phesy in the name of the Lord, but covet the 


‘presents of Balakt—we have an Achan in the 


camp, whose unsanctified love of monew trou- 
bles usj—this is Delilah, whose fascinations 
unnerve Samson’s arm, despoil him of his 
locks, and leave hima prey to the Philistines) — 
this is Bathsheba, whose charms have bewit- 
ched Christians, until they are involved in im- 
puriiy and murderij—this is the idol which the 
1 children of Israel have set up in their hearts : 
the stumbling-block of iniquity which the house 
of Judah have placed before their faces§—ihis 
\ COvetrousness recoins the thirty picces of silver 
for which Judas betrayed his Lord** --and 
this is that love of the present world, for which 
- Demas forsook the Apostles’ doctrine and fel- 
 Jowship.tt 


3 
7 4 * ‘Exodus 32. + Numbers 22 $¢ Joshua 7 

' § Judges 16. || 2 Samucl 11. § Mzckikl 14. &. 
¥* Matthew 26 14—16. {ft 2 Timothy 4. 10. 


20 STATEMENT 


Ht 
The Book, the unbiassed conviciions of e-) 
very man’s conscience, and the natural sensi. || 
bilities of ihe heart, establish this docirme :/ 
but Officers and Members of the church have}, 
endeavoured to intimidate and silence the pro- | 
mulgers of the truth: while the shameless at- | 
tempts which have latterly been made, to sus-|jf 
tain a system of merciless horrors upon evan- | t 
gelical principles, and by men whose authority || §) 
will be adduced, and whose example will be |) # 
imuated by the thoughtless and the covetous, |) | 
imperiously require the exertions of those whe | 
wo tld preserve the chracter of sincere Christ- || 9 
tans. 5. i i 
“] shall briefly give my opinion of slavery I know 
it to be inhuman; I am certain it is unjust: and no})§ 
‘honest man can support @ trade founded upon prin: | @ 
ciples of injustice and cruelty Upon this subject, I) 
neither feel, nor desire to feel, any thing like mode )) i 
ration. We are accused of enthusiasm Are we then 
Fanstics ? are we Enthusiasts ? because we cry, Do 
mot rob, do not murder! I have ever considered this, 
business as a most unjust and horrible persecution. |) 
ot our fellow-creatures? and in whatsoever situation | 
I may ever be; as long as I have a voice to speak, |) 
this question. shull never be at an end. * 
“Tius Fox, all-cloquent for freedom stood, 
With specch resistiess as the voice of bload ; He . 
The voice that crics through all the Patriot’s veins; |) j 
Wren at his feet his country groans in chains ; 
"hac voice that whispers in. the Mother’s breast, 
Whe smiles her infant in his rosy rest: 
5 Tov circumstances which produced this volume 
are subsequently narrated. 
® Charlee James Fox. 


: TO THE sSUBIECT. ¥3 


Of power to bid the storm of passion roll ; 
Or touch with sweetest tenderness the soul. 
He spake in vain—till with his latest breath, 
He broke the spell of Africa in death : 

His dying accents trembled into air ; 

“Spare injured Africa ! the Necro spare !” + 


_ That so monstrous an anomaly as man-steal- 
ing should ever have existed, almost surpasses 
credibility : but that Messias’ disciples should 
be guilty of this highest transgression against 
human nature, and defend its abominations, 
never could have been believed, had not all 
onr senses verified the awful fact. 6. 


oe 

; + Montgomery’s West-Indies. 

+6. The question was introduced for discussion inte 
the last General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. 
A petition upon the propriety of acknowledging Slavee 
holders as Christian Believers, and a reference res 
pecting the religion of Soul-Merchants were presente 
ed: their proceedings exhibited great indecision, and 
intimated not hesitation only, but a fear to fulfil their 
obligations. ¢ 

) During the debate, the uniform conduct: of Slaves 
holders who profess Christianity, was denied as ‘mise 
Tefiresentation :’’ notorious facts were contradicted up- 


| on tne plea of “exargeration 2’ and an aversion from 


eo ee +e 


| 
\j 
j 
i 


4 
h 


, detaining men in involuntary. unconditional, and ine 
términable servitude and degradation, of the blackest 
Nature, and in the basest degree, was reprobated in 
the most public manner, as “th: offefiring of a tur 
dulent and factious spirit.” 

— 


“= $ The minute of the Assembly ; a Protest against 


i) the decision of that body; and a mcthod to extirpate 
| Slavery from the Church, are inserted in the Appendix. 


ee 
wh 4 


* 


wie 
| 


i 
ih, 
} 
i 
Being decided against any compromise be- |, 
tween justice and injustice, Gospel-sincerity | 
and human dissimulation, and opposing this |} | 
Goliah of iniquity ; the sling and the stone are | 
4 


ae STATEMENT 


taken— 

t 
Yes! It is the misrenresentatton with which they 
charged Elijah, when on Mount Carmel, he denoun- 
ced the Priests of Baal as the soul-destroyers of the 
Israelites: ¢ it is the exaggeration with which the 
Jews calumniated Jeremiah, when he delivered the 
tremendous information—that for enslaving their bre-: 
7 thren, the LORD froclaimed liberty to the sword,’ 
the pestilence, and the famine.* It is the turbulence 
if which characterized Peter, when he avowed before || | 

it the Sanhedrim, that he would obey GOD rather than 
man: it is the factious sfirit which was imputed 
to Stephen, when he declared the truth of the Jewish, 
| Council; Ye stiff-nccked, and uncircumcised in heart 
| and vars, who do always resist the HOLY-GHOST, @ 9) 
your Fathers did, s0 do ye :§ it isthe world-upside- i 


| 
{ 
i 
Hh 
| 
: 
| 
; 


Ot 
‘ 
t 


down-turning disposition, which emboldened Paul, to | 
iif preach Refientance and the Resurrection of the dead, 
a to the Areoparzites : || it is the ¢urdulence for which. || 9 
they reviled Martin Luther, when he dared to defend |) 
the ¢ruth, thougn Rome and her imps had determined 
tn destroy him: it is the /actious spirit, by the in” 
| | fluence of which, John Knox silenced Mary of Scot. | 
} | land, when he assured her, that there was a vast dis: |) 
tinction hetween an ignorant and an informed consci: || fj 
| ence, and that her judgment being unenlightened, |) [ 
‘Rat conducted her into the paths of error an‘! irreligion: 9) @ 
in! and it 1s that misrepresenting, exaggerating, turbulen: |) 
dit and factious spirit, which peopicd the Coiumbian ||) 
Ft Wiids, rather than surrender to any ecclesiastical ty-| |) 
it 
| 


—— aa 


t 1 Kings 18. * Jeremiah 34 8=—-20. $ Acte 4 1) 
Anh and 5. § Acts 7. 51. || Acta 1% | i \G 


23 


OF THE SURITCT. 


| Who is this uncircumcised PiHILISTINE, 
‘that he should defy the armies of the living 
i WGod ? * 
he 
1 » ) Samuel 17. 26. 
ranny, the rights of man, and the illumination of the 
BOOK. 
_ 4 O for more “ Misrenrcsenters,” who have the buld- 
| mess to display the abominations of Negro-Tanners ! 
. 40 for more *Exaggerators”’ who will heap confusion 
| upon pretended Christians, by lucidly developing their 1% 
Jconstant violations of the eighth commandme:t! O 
\for more turbulent and factious souls, who wili not 
an iconnive at Officers and Members of the Church, 
- Ustealing men, with impunity, and without censure + 
‘i O God, grant us ali the exuberance of that spirit 
| lwhich impelled the reformers, the > Martyrs, the 
| | Prophets, and the Apostles of Jesus cunxist! Anzn. 


=a 


ATRL A RE GE te EET CRE 


<- 


_je 
a ey ate ie rae Ae LOE 
~ 


Sas Sess 


\ 
' 
} 
1% 


| 
il 
| 


aoe tS SS —— 


CHAPTER IZ. 


THE LAW OF GOD AND MAN. 


—<——wt 5 it} a— 


So abhorrent from our natural sensations is! 
the system of stealing, buying, selling, and) 
enslaving immortal creatures, that it is dificultll 
accuratcly to peu ate this wretched degrada. |] 
tion of mar. A Slave is a rational, ren 
being, with an abject mind and broken heart ;' 
without any will: all whose rights are robbed ;' 
whose uberty is despoiled, and whose li life is pro- 
loised at the caprice ofa tyrant. No difference 
is perceptible, between the trafic in human’) 
fics on the coast of Africa or in the interior | 
of America. Every slave in these Sta‘es 1s as: | i 
notoriously kednapped, as if they had becn | ; 
purloined from Guinea: aud he who claims ay 
coloured child as his property, and nurtures) |g 
and detains it in slavery, is equally a A/an-thief,) | % 
with the .Vegro-stealer on the Gold-Coast. |} } 
Those persons who denounce the income a 
Flesh. Merchant, and who seem to admit, that!)) § 
the imported souls could not have been justiti-| 
ably captivated, deny that they unrightcously | 
grasp their brethren, and denominate them- || ; 
selves “innocent Slave-holders : but this is ||} 
self- confutation Can that be innocence in the |} 
temperate zone which is the acme ofall guilt, 
near the equator? can that be honesty in one||| § 
meridian of longitude, which at 100 degrees) i 


La 


a 


os 


LAW- 29 


gest, is the efimax of injustice ? and would 
es he, who appropriates to himself, all the 
¢hildren born around him, immediately as 
| they enter the world, upon the same principles, 
make a descent upon Congo, and kidnap a 
ship load ? No real distinction exists between 
. fim, who steals the woman from her husband. 
fhe child from its parent, or the whole family, 
$2 the eastern or the western shores of the Ai- 
) duntic, whether for eaportation or domestte 
') passalage. 7. 
| i) He thet stealeth a man, and selleth him, or 
ti ur he be found in his hand, he shall surely be 
put to death. f 
“By this law, every man-stealer, and every receiver 
—ipfthe stolen person, lost his life: whether the latter 
) Abtole-the man himself, or gave money to a Slave-Caft- 
| Wain or Vegro-Dealer to steal for him. All kidnapping 
Tend slave-dealing are prohibited, whether practised by 


j 


§ndividuals or the state.""§ 


1 
ji 7. These identical individuals would rage, “if it were 
Jattempted thus to exculpate any other Felon. Inno- 
‘h rn Horse-Thief is more consistent language thar 
"i fgunocent Siave-holder ; for the crime of the latter ex- 
“ feeeds that of the former, as much as the limited and 
| #temporary powers of the animal are surpassed by the 
|| Vextensive capacities and never-ending existence of man. 
‘i4‘We know men to whom the truth is become unin- 
Trelligible, in consequence of the disguise in which 
) they have ‘taken the pains to clothe it ; and who have 


accustomed themselves to palliate vice, ull they are 


| \Gneapable of perceiving its turpitude.” Saurin. 
|] 4 Exodus 21. 16. § Adam Clarke. 

id C 

eat i 

Bie 

i Hi 

1) | 

nh ; 

y i 

" on 


i ; 
26 rHE LAW eF a if 
" 


- tea of ment? || 


Reron indize of him, or selleth him, then that | 


THIEF shall die. bt 


“Chrisuanity fas annihilated that distir ction of na. 
tions which was once established : every man is now | 
our brother, whatever be his nation, coinplexion. orp 
erecd How then can the merchandize of men and)_\, 
women be carried on, without transgressiny this com-) | 
mandment, or abetting those who do? If a man steal) 
a horse or sheep, he is condemned ; but af he steal ore | 
purchase of those who steal, hundreds of men rat 
woren, he not only escapes wi h en punity; but ErOWS | 
great by this unnatural commerce! According to the)? | 
law of God, whoever stole cattle restored four or fivell ae 
fold; whoevcr stole one human being, though ax id} 
jot or an infant, must die. He who stole any one off. 
the human species, in order to make a slave of him. 
or to sel] him for a slave, whether the Thicf had ac- 
tually sold him, or whether he continucd in his pos; 
session, was punished with death: but if we are sri 
Christians, we shall have no occasion for penal stat- 
utes to restrain us from stealing or enslaving our) 
brethren a the human species, and ¢rading the bod | 


Smee ae aE 


Thou shalt not delver unto his master, the; i 
servant whe is escaped from his master unite! | 
thee : He shall dwell with thee, even among?) | 
you. in that place which he shall choose, in it 
one of thy gates where it liketh him best: 
thou shalt not oppress him. David said to the, 
Egyptian, canst thou bring me down to this com-\ 
pany ? und he said, swear unto me by God, that) , 
thou wi!t neither kill me, nor deliver me into) | 
the hands of my master, and I will bring thee} \j 


§ Deuteronomy 24. 7. " Scott, 


SOD AND SIAN. Pai | | 
Ky} } 
flown to this company Take counsel, execute 
—Gudgment ; make thy shadow as the night in the 
‘ynidst of the noon-day : hide the outcasts, bewray 
eiot him who wandereth. Chou shouldest not have 
|. (stood in the cross way, to cut off those wha did 
jescape ; neither shouldest thou have delivered 
‘up those who did remain in the day of distress. 
\ GAs thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: 
|| “thy reward shall return upon thine own head. * 
4 These scriptures proctaim that slave-holding 
|) 3js an abomination in the sight of God : for 
_ Git justifies the slave in absconding from his 
Tyrant, and enjoins upon every man to faci- 
- Mitate his escape, and to secure his freedom. 
“i 1 Does this injunction comport with a Chris- 
\ jtian’s advertising as a fugitive criminal, a mar ; 
 \ywho has merely fled from his cruel captivity, 
jor with his aiding to trace and seize him who 
{had thus burst from “‘durance vile” ? It isa 
4 rciteration of the theft: yet he professes to be ("5 
Ky influenced by the Gospel! 8. | 
4. But the Man-stealer states, that this is in- ,_ 
| piustice, as it destroys his property ; and that 
V fit is base to aid a slave to fly from his chains, 
‘| or not to assist in recapturing him. Were the 
i | Master placed in similar misery with the vic- 


ee et 


: 
oh —— \ 
ie * Deuteronomy 23. 15, 16 1 Samuel 30 10—16. j 
©  Ieaiah 16 3. Obadiah 14, 15. | 

t 


4 8 “Well may we blusi:, when we hear a man boast- ‘ 
ing of his rights as an American, and of his citizen- it 
j4 ship among the Saints, with a whip in one hand, a | 
|) ,))}} chain ip the other, and before him, a Negro flayed vl 
| |) from the head to the loins !” 

| 


Hid 
hii 


ii 
Pia 


-vioiating the law of love, and the commanc 


«8 THE Law oF 


tim of his cruel avarice, and he should es | 


cape ; rather than be seized, he would slay the j) 


assailant; his heroism would be honoured, , 


and his contest for freedom being righteous. 4) 


he would be exonerated: but if a colourec {) 
person should wound a Aianapper, he is igno. ») 
miniously executed, and almost without form: 4 


for the trial of Negros is the highest burlesque ri i i 


upon the administration of justice, that des. ©} ) ! 


potism ever devised. 


“For tis establish’d by your partial laws, 
No slave bears witness in a white man’s cause. 
Beings you deem them of inferior kind, 
Denied a human or a thinking mind. 


Pe 

\ ¥ 
I!appy for Negros were this doctrine true, 1 

r 


Were feelings lost to them, or given to you /” 


A man cannot assist in seizing a slave, ; || 
and robbing him again of his hberty or life) J 


when he ,is inculpable before society, withou: “ 


of God. 


“Slavery ! virtue dreads it as her grave: 


Patience itself is meanness in a slave. oa i 


Yet if the will and sovereignty of God, 
Bid suffer it awhile, and kiss the rod, 
Wait for the dawning of a brighter day, 


And snafi the chain the moment when you may t” eli | 


= 


|} Ezekiel 27. lbh 


a GoD AND MAN. 


ie 


29 


) ‘The gospel censures these sinners with ce- 
Nestial authority. Paul characterizes the Rom- 
Jans “sho were Slave-holders. as mventors of ¢- 
Jul things. without natural affection, implacable, 


and unmerciful.* 


“ Among the most corrupt transgressors, he classes 
‘ Mar-Stealers.t This crime among the Jews exposed 
“the perpetrators of it to copital punishment ; and the 
Apostle classes them with sinners of the first rank. 
’Yh: word he uses, in its original import, compres 
ends all who are concerned in bringing any of the 
‘human race into slavery, or in detaining them in it. 


- | Stealess of men are all those, who bring off slaves or 


4 
§ freemen, and keep, sell or buy them. © To steal a 
1 Freeman is the highest kind of theft.§ In other 


steal or retain men in slavery, we seize those wio In 
common with ourselves, are consiituted by the original 
4 grant. Lords of the earth.{ 9 

| “® Man-stcalers!—The worst ef all thieves ; in com- 
parison of whom, highway robbers and house-breakers 
+ are inuocent ! What then are traders in Negros, ane 


') iustances we only steal human property, but when we 
ti 
p 


“Men-Scalers are inserted among these daring 
_ criminals, against whom the law of God directed its 
| awful curses. These kidnapped men to sell them for 
| slaves; and this practice seems inseparable from the 
other iniquities and oppressions of slavery; nor can 
a slave-dealer keep frec from this criminality, if “the 
| receiver be as bad as the thief.’ || 


procurers of servants for America ''"§ 
A 

f 

{ 

f 


i i ~ They who make war, for the inhuman purpose 
& of selling the vanquished as slaycs, are really iei- 


lo — 


} * Romana |. 30. t+ 1 Timothy 1. 10. § Grotius. 


) $ Presbyterian Confession of Laith. 

|) 9 With this doctrine, as his avowed creed, can @ 
i Presbytirian Siave-driver charitably be decimed a sin- 
yi.cere Ciutstiau ? 


G dohn Mesley, — {| Score. 
2 


rs 


= ae ee 


errs ene oe 


-(I rity 
ii i it if 
i ( 

I 30 TRE LAW of : IR! i 
i| “HH 

My stealers. And they who encourage that wchristias. ! 1, 
ij trafic by purchasing the slaves which they know to i, 


| 

| 

| ° . 

| ‘ be thus unjustly acquired are partakers in their | 

| crime.” 

} { 
i 
} 


of men.* a | 

“ To number the ficrsons of men with beasts, shecp,, | 
and horses, as the stock of a farm, or with bales of | 
goods, as the cargo of a ship, is a most detestable’ || @ 
and antichristian practice.’* i ni 


te 
‘ 


“« Shall Protestants renounce that merchandize of! 
if Rome, which consists of odours, and ointments, and} 
\ chariots, and purple, and silk and scarlet, and continue | 
{| ‘hat more scandalous traffic in slaves and souls of | 
a men 2?*+ } 
| | “In ages to come, it will scarcely meet with credit, | |) } 
t 
| 
| | 


| ‘hat we who boast ourselves of being a free nation, | | i 


‘ha 


Hl should have been capable of buying and selling aouls.| |i 


iit and it is the introduction and profession of that gospel, | 
| ‘(fl which render the dealing in slaves so cnormously | 
fii wicked! A Christian buying and selling slaves! A} 
| ‘nau, who professes that the leading law ot his life,’ | 

is to do as he would be done by, spending his time, | ||) 
i ‘and amassing a fortune in buying and selling his fele | 9 


at Zowemen '§ bY ; 
‘ i 


Is there not some chosen curse, 
Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, 
Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man, 
3Vho gains his fortune from the blood of soule?’*'$ 


ij % Macknight. * Revelation 18. 13. || Scor?. i. 
bi 4. Robineon. § Simpson. t Cowper. } 
i 


BOD ANB MAS. Ge 


The Methodist discipline asserts, that thee 

“js “one only condition previously required of 
| those who Wish admission into these socictics, 
-'g desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to 
the saved from their sins.” But how shall they 
: evidence that their desire is real and genuine ? 
| “By aveiding evi of every kind, especially that 
© Which Is most generally practised : the buying 
or selling of men, women, or children, with an 


“\\\catention to enslave them. Notwithstanding, 


| Methodist Christians engage 1 this evils can 
. they, in the exercise of evangelical charity, be 
"| pronounced acceptable members ? 

‘) Vhe ancient Jews understood the words in 
, ithe decalogne, Thou shalt not steal, of maiie 
| {stealing ; and chought that the otner sorts of 


‘ shalt not covet ~ Under the Dfosaic law, man- 


i] 
1 


) by the claimant, or purchased 


eee Ee 


ae 


$ Exodus 20. 15—1¥, 


Ne a I ER EE 


Path { were implied in the last precept, Thor 


‘stealing was the ouly capital robbery + for the 
‘theft of property was expiated by ample resti- 
‘iution. But to enslave a Jew, was deemed an 
) equal crime with murder ; and as it virtually 
|| involves the same consequences, it insured the 
} > same punishment : and it. was no subject of in- 
| quity, whether the slave was actually kidnaped 

from another ; 
put if it could be manifested, that such a per- 
son was detained by him contrary to the law of 
_ God, no alternative existed, degth was his 1m- 
1, mediate portion. 


THE LAW OF 


ght to buy slaves, is any! 
Other or better, ‘han that of the seller. They are} 
verily guilty i whose hand the slave is found No! 
plea can excuse the pracsice of detaining in slavery | 
the children of those who have been brought from 
Atrica; or give a right to seil them, as any other 
article of property." 
~ The all-wise Creator of mankind never intended, 
that one pertof the human race should sell fer lucre 
the other. Lrading the fcrsons of men is altogether & 
repugnant to the doctuines taught by our Lord him 
sell, and to the dictates of the glorious yospel of : 
peace. Which preaches universa! philantiropy anc «nod 
wil to men = Paul, with reference to the detestable 
custom of kidnafifiing ».en, for the hurpose of carry- 
ing them into slavery, classes man-stealing sith those 
crimes which are most detestable in the cye of God, 
Mot pernicious to society, and most deserving of 
dean by the swo:dof the magistrate. Man-stealing,” 
and ail elave-holding is man-stcaling, * must there- 
fore be considered a ross evil, in every age, and 
every nation. This practice is a clime of the first 
mMavuitude against our neighbour. If he who pilfers 
another’s property, steals a sheep, robs on the high 
road, or commits a burglary, be considered and treated 
as a thief, a robber, a Pest to sucie.y, of what cn- 
crmoue villainy must he be guilty, who kidnafis my 
tonest neighbour, my Saithful servant, my dutiful 
child, or my uffectionate wife, to transport the one er 


i 


—— 
a a er ort 


— 


I OR 


ok x 


eae 


—_ 


H 


SE ET TET 


teak Gain oc aa 


* Brown's Dictionary of the Holy bible. 


TRS 


2 


| 10D AND MAN. 33 


the other to a country entirely unknown, and never 
thence to return ! ‘his eutrage on the sacred rights 
jof liberty, of justice and of humanity is greatiy ene 
thanced, if that worst of thieves intend, either to treat 
‘them himself as the most abject slaves; or to sell 
‘them for that cruci and infamous purpose.” But it 
‘liffers not, whether he steals the frarents in Guineg 
tor the children in hig own Aouse, or ensiaves them 
' ‘Qimself, or transfers them to others for that nefarious 
jobject. * In either case, and much more when they 
‘tare united, reason and conscience, the common Bcotle 
Jments aod feelings of mankind, will all unite, if not 
jdebauched by avarice, or blunted by habit. ts approve 
lof Jehovah’s law as just He that stealeth a man, and 
jsclieth him, or if he be found in hie hand; he shak 
‘surely be fut to death™ Nor is there a man upon 
‘l earth, not even among those who are grown hoary in 
\the iniquitous trade of kidnapping and man-stealing, 
'* or bartering brandy and baubles for human flesh and 
| l blood, that would ‘not execrate the character of himiy 

to whose power or subtlety he had fallen a victim for 
similar purposes, and that would not pronounce him 
worthy of death. But if there were no receivers, there 
wouid be no thieves ; and he who recetves the etoler 
bodies of men, ought to be punished with death ace 
cording to the law of the - ord, because they are found 
in Ais hand Low insulting to méral justice, and hew 
affronting to common sense, that those: persons Whe 
would be immured in” the penitentiary, “¢ for secretly 
purchasing a few shillings’ worth of property, kaow= 
ing it to have been stolen, should have it in their 
power publicly to buy andysell whole familes of” 
coloured people,'* with comptere impunity, and with 
out violating any pronibitory law of the land! aa if 
rectitude aid sobbery were local things: the former 
losing its respectability, and the latter its turpitude, 
whenever the liberty and the lives of harmlesa negros 
become the object of avarice ' 


= 


eS es 


IN 2 Se ge tow _ = 
EO EASES I aL at ca ae 


= 
peters 


=—J 


ame 


RE Bota 


Peet 2 


* Exodus 31. 16. ; = 


THR LAW OF 


“The Bible is not in any caanner # favourer off 
the system of enslaving mankind — It forbids nothing |] 
to the African, that is equitable in the conduct {| 
the American, It knows vo more of a white mars |) 
buying and enslaving a black one, than it doce ofal 
black man buying and enslaving the white. In its {I 
impartial estimate, and under its commanding power. |} § 
Fagane and Christians are all ona level. Uf theft | 
lawfulness of purchasing innocent persons, for the Ti 
most cruel and degrading slavery. exist among men, |) i 
it must be a common right and equally possessed | | ih 
by all ations. 41 mankind might be taken to the ; i) 
bert market for the human species; exfoeed in the hg 
moet indecent manner to frublic sale; handled and || | 
examined like so many head of cattle by their fur- | | | 


chaecs ; consigned over, with their unborn frosterity, | ih 


fo the most cruel slavery. from generation to gencra- i 
tion ; and for what? Here let Aumanity blusn, mercy | 
sweef, and justice be roused into indignation. As it 
is impossible to prove that the natural nmghts of man 
@re not equally sacred in Africa as they are in America i 
would the law of this country fiermit, the trafficker | 
in souls would no more scrupile to kidnap, or fur- 
Chase the son of his next neighbour, than he would 


the inbabitants of a remote continent or their descen- 


dante.""* 

Mhe principles of moral right and wrong are | 
invariable. They are not circumscribed by ge. 
ographical boundaries, or particular periods of 
time; but apply to every individual, of all com- 
munities, and in every age. Praetices condem- 


Jned among the Israeiites, upon the basis of e- 


ternal rectitude, never can be justified: and 
Jewish aberrations from the requisitions of 
their own heavea promulged jaw, instead of 
furnishing us an example to copy, provide 3 
beacon for alarm and insiruciion. 


ee 


* Woed's Dictionary of the Holy Bible. 


2 
i GOD AND MAX. <5 ‘3 
The public formuiries of the United States VA 


sfexhiui the vasi Contradiction etween our doce 
“itrine apd practice with oracular authority. 


} 
pe a a | 
(if © We hol these truths to be s«clf-cvident—that af ee 
“men are created equal, that they ave endowed by their i 
Creator with certain unalienable richts; that smong 
these are life, libery aod the vuraait of hapaincss.”” 

« All men are born equally tee and incepcndents 
all men have certain natural, essential and inherent 
rihts—among which are, the enjoying and cefe> ing 
life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, an protecting 
preperty 3 aud in a word, of seeking and obtaining wt 
happiuess. Among the vatural rights some are ih their 
yer) nature unalienable, because no equivalent can be 
given or received for them. Of this kind are the } 
Rights of Conscience.’’¢ 

“ Aj] men are born free and equal, and have cer- ; 
tain natural, essential and unalienable rights : among Pan 
which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and de- eae 
fending their lives and liberties ; and that of acquiring, if 
poxsessing, and protecting property ; in fine, that of 
seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.”’} 

“ All men are born cqually free and incepencent, a 
and have certain inherent and indefcisible rights, a- 
mong which are those of enjoying and defending life iy}! 
and liberty, of acquiring, possessing and protecting ; 
pruperty and reputation, and of pursuing their own . | 
happiness.”’|] : 

“Through divine goodness, all men have by nature, Bey 
- the rights of worshipping and serving their Creator 
according to the dictates of their consciences, of ene ‘ 
joying and defending life and liberty, and acquiring pad 
and protecting reputation and property, and in general, { j 
of attaining objects suitable to their condition, withe - fag 
eut injury by one to another; and these Tights are Fe 
essential to their welfare.’’§ | 

Pa 
eel 


ae oy a Serpe 


reese nt re tere 


aes be 


PT 
Sm 


cesar 


bln 5 anaes no nna ba btaedbalhed 


mae 


_® Declaration of Indefiendence. + New-Hampaihire.- 
$ Massachusetts. || Pennsylvania. §& Delaware 


Tif LAW oF 


« All man are by nature equally free and inde 
pendent, and have certain inherent rights ; of which 
when they enter into a state of society, they cannot,| 
by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity 
namely the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the 
woeans of acquiring and possessing pioperty, and pur-}) 
suing and obtaining happiness and safety "4 [ 

“All men are born equally free and independent, | 
and have certain -natural, inherent and unalienable th 
rights. among which are the enjoying and defending 
life and liberty. acquiring, possessing and protecting |, 
property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and}, 
safety ’’** 


been duly convicted. i 

« All men are born equally free and independent, |! 
and nave certain natural, unalienable rights, among |) 
which are the enjoying and defer.ding life and liberty, f) 
acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and | 
pirsuing and obtaining happiness and safety. There 


shal be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in 
this state. ’t 

Thus saith the BOOK; butthe laws which 
sanction the slavery of Negros, deny this doc- 
trinc, and consequently are a LIE ! 

How cailous must that heart be to all shame ! 
which notwithstanding these self-evident traths, 
can gravely mammtain the neccssiiy of protruct- 
ing slavery, and uphold its horrors by his acte 
ual participation : for every liberal mind is tho- 
roughly convinced, of the unrighteousness and 
inexpediency of this, the most cruel, detest. 
able and consummately wicked measure that 


eee 


q Virginia. ¥® Permont, ® North Western 
Territory. t Ohio. 


EE TEPER TT TT Nt 


GOD AND MAN. 37 


_ has been ever devised by mercantile avarice, 
or sanctioned by a sordid, narrow and mis- 
_- guided policy. of 
: iy ‘What hypocrisy and villany, to profess that we are | 
) votaries of liberty, while we encourage or countenance ; 

/ the most ignoble slavery.* We cannot form to ours 
P selves an idea of an object more ridiculous, than ap 

+ American fatriot signing declarations of Indcfiendence 
© avivy one hand, and with the other, brandishing hie | 
Fi pwhif over his affrighted slave. 
+ ¥) How awfully deluded must he be, who, ~“ || 
| | wilfully closing his eyes to the splendour of — 
| divine illumination, and shielding his soul 
ik ) from all the arrows of conviction, will con- 
¥ sider himself Messiah’s disciple, though by the 
Book, his conscience, his own theological and. 
republican creed, and the supreme law of the i 
Hland, he stands condemned: for injustice and fr 
“inhumanity, before the Church and the World. 


i cruel man-stealing Christian / 10. 


} 

t 

| 

ae * Brannagan. Ht 

!1)} 10. We combat not the theft of Negros on the coast Bay 

Hot Africa, and the transportation o! them to the United 

_[Staes. Che wholesale Man-stealer, like Cein, brars 

) ‘ithe mark in his Forehead; he is a fugitive and « 
} 
t 


»Gies, by dissolving ail domestic relations. and by transe 
fplanting fom one state to avother these wretched 
jfreatures, because they have a different tinge from 
imself, is the primeval Murderer’s own offspring. j 
rap xamine his face, it 1s tie exhibition of every in- 


| 
W\iernal passion: -Aie Acart ! ! ho | 


Wi Dd 


« These same Slave-holders would wade throvgn 
seas of the blood of white men, as well as black «en, 
to gratify their despotic propensities if they were not) 
restrained : it is the fear not the love of either God.” 
or man, that restrains them.’’} rH 

As these are the unadulterated truths of (3k 
the Gospel, how can a follower of the meck 
and lowly Jesus, be connected with asystem, » 


which essentially generates such malevolent? | ii}, 


principles, and such barbarous conduct? Yet)” 
Church-Officers display a predominant insen- 


sibility to this complicated turpitude. The. Hi 
quintessence of all absurdity is to hear an}. |] 


Oppressor, in the name of him “ who touched) - 


Isaiah’s hallowed lips with fire,” expatiate up) Hy 


F 


on the poox delivered to Jesus in Nazareth.) © 


« A person cannot be a child of God, and live in) | 
the practice of that which his. reason, his conscience, || 
and Scripture disallow : and a man must be intel-) |] 
lectually blind, not to sce that all these faithful monitors) ) 
absolutely and unequivocally condemn slavery and inst 4 
abettors. + blk 


As equity and injustice, philanthropy - and 


barbarism, vice and religion, cannot coalesce ;\ | 


every Officer and Member of the Church, | @ 


who steals slaves, although he professes tol; 


believe and inculate the evangelic charity which | f 


he does not exemplify, is equally culpable | 
with the Cgiite, who kidnapped their African) |) 9 
ancestors. eh 


—— 


} Brannagan. § Luke 4. 16—32. 4+ Brannagan. 4 


a CHAP TER) Wik 


SLAVERY IS IMPIOUS, CRUEL, FALSE AND UNJUST- 


ai ii Slavery of our species combines every 

iF base characteristic. When that august period 
~ shall have arvived, that the total extinction 
of this monster shall be celebrated with the 
‘iG triu mphs of Christianity—the inscription which 


"will narrate its existence will simply record— 


u i 
{ 


| Here lies the enemy of man, whose principles 


) were irreligion, whose dispositions were cruelty, 
whose language was falsehood, whose conduct 
| was injustice, and whose pretensions were 
‘hypocrisy. An impious, barbarous, and de- 
| ceitful Thief !¥ Yet this Idol has usurped a 


|)prominent station in the temple of God, and 
‘silences the voice of those who minister and 
{) serve in the Sanctuary—until the Blind are 
leading the Blind into the ditch of perdition. 
i Slavery is impious, for it directly subverts 


i 


)jiethe divine authority, The supremacy of the 

iy ereat Jehovah ts denied, and lis government . 
. ys . . . . 

i iol the human family catircly wrested from 


| . 
j ae by this vile usurpation, Every principle 
\ rE which dignifies, every affection which refines, 

t 


Ae 


Ce 


i 


vu pot, who would overthrow God’s jurisdicdon) 


SLAVERY 


but all these are extinguished as soon as man ‘| 


is degraded to abrute. No alternative exisis; 


inferiors in wealth and civil stations must be> t 


considered as moral agents, or must be classed 


with the focks and herds of the field. Hence,).’} | 
slavery involves the most awful conse. | fi) 
uences, and wretchedness irremediable. It) |} 


is a wilful disobedience to the commandments: — 


of Go; and not only exposes the criminal! H 
to the wrath of the Judge, but is a most, |) 


artful and diabolical invention to exclude even: 


the sufferer by this ungodly machination| 


from the celestial regions of bliss ) 


He who has scrutinized the uniform tenden. 


cy of involuntary servitude ; who examines — 
the unvarying practice of those who ingulph): } 


the bodies and souls of men in the net of their} 


selfishness and insensibility ; and who, with) 


the cye of Christian philanthropy, has investi, 
gated the moral charicter of the servants)! 
knows; thata S/ave-holder 1s av unfeeling des: 


Very few Men Stealers comparativel: are? 
eyen ziominal Chrisiian Believers. How can). 
a person pretend to be a disciple of the crUucl-), 
fied Jesus, who hinders his worship and con) 


7, s . [ ai 
travenes his commands ; in whom all cvan:) 
gelical charity is extinct; and who will | 


neither enter the kingdom of heaven, nor -per-/ 
mit those to approach who would crave ad-} 
mission at the gate? The spirit of Christi 


anity and the practices of Men-thieves are ath. 
total oppugnation ; and consequently they exer!) 


ae DELINEATED. 4k 


|| their energies to counteract the progress of 
ev and undefiled religion.’ By their 
iexample and influence, they endeavour to di- 
1; "| minish all regard for sacred institutions, to 
. impede the acquisition of all necessary know- 

| ledge, and to obstruct their slaves from listen- 
‘a Bling to the admonitions of divine truth. 

| Christianity promuiges liberty to the captive ; 
it depicts all the misery which must neces- 
iat he }sarily follow an equitable remuneration, if God 
/ ||) Tequites the Slave-holder, as he has abused 
"| |%his fellow-man; it inculcates the doctrines of 
vii 1 justice which the Man stealer ever violates; 
} I) of mercy, which never regulate his intercourse 
| Aen others ; of Jove, which are swallowed up 
4 (by an avaricious, dissipated extinction of fcel- 
I Ming ; and of religious Jear, which has been 

i! exterminated from bis heart, by his delibcrate 
“| Tejection of the light to hfe, and by his ob- 
duracy in opposing ** the truth as it is in Jesus;”” 
because it condemns his theft and barbarity. 
. Hence the Sabbath is disregarded, the means 
of grace are neglected, and the Gospel ceases 
at all to interest, until the candlcstick is re- 
moved from its place, and both the Tyrant 
avd the Slave, realizing a marble-hearted in. 
4 difference, mingle the same profane exccra- 
tions, exhibit an identical dishonour of God, 
4 and manifest an equal insensibility to worlds 
verlasting. But if the Slave, convinced of 
the value of his soul, and solicitous to be 
‘ tescucd from the wrath vo come, is desirous 
0 receive gospel instruction, it is altogether 
Nes 2 

batt | 


4 
I 
i 
i 
, 
# 
k 


o- 


42 SLAVERY 


denied him, or his attendance at the house 
of prayer is so restricted, that it includes all Ei 
the qualities of a total prohibition. 11. 

The law of Virginia denominated a varicty 
of meetings by the coloured people, unlawful 5 | 
but the clause was so indeterminate. that it | 
empowered the Magistrate to decide what as- | 


semblies subjected the attendant to fine and a 
punishment. By an act of the year 1804, | | # 


all night-meetings upon whatever pretext, ine | 
sured the parties, if convicted, a whipping : i 
but this act being a direct violation of re- | 
ligious freedom, it was subsequently amended 
and explained: and a higher stigraa upon 
legislation, if the clause is viewed in con. 
nection with the relation which man sustains | 


trying or permitting his, hcr or their slave or 
slaves to go with him, her or them, or with any | 
vart of his, her or their white family, to any | 


worship; provided, that such worship be con- 
ducted by a regularly ordained or licensed 


place whatever for the purpose of religious | a 


white minister.’’£ Ait. 


ae 


11. All those masters who neglect the religious and Hi 
moral instruction of their siaves, add a heavy i ul of ft 
guilt to that alrcady incurred, by their s are un this 7) i 


unjust and inhuman traffic. Wakefield, 
$+ Reyised Code, 


; 
me} 
Ha 
t 

f 


ie 
|| ieee 


A 
| 


4, ie coe NN Me LT 
it cy 


ee ab 
ie VE F 
| 


| DELINEATED. 43 
He 
| The total obstruction, is not one jot more j 
- thostile to the progress of the Gospel, more | 
‘subversive of every natural right, or more a8 
+) daring in its defiance of Jchovah’s supremacy. 
‘How men who swear by the Book, to per- 
“form their official dutics, could enact such 
) st regulations for the government of immortal 
‘souls, cannot be explained upon any principle, | 
18) Lei y : ra 
| which does not overwhelm them with the Mt 
“outmost disgrace. 12. 


Y {Even those who have a small portion of 


\ 
SEA . ech aie = . . 
i || jeonscience remaining, display their depravity 5 
4 1) for their pride revolts, if the descendants of 
ret f ‘Africa are seen within the walls of the temple ; ts 
i Hagencrally no convenient stations are provided ‘hi 
mai 
|| jfor slaves, that they may hear the truih; and 
ie where a man contrives to preserve the forms Wj 
i Hot domestic worship with the stealing and traf- ‘; 
«| | feking of human flesh; the victims of his Ald 
(tad Nt 
ale I 
1 a ras ie! 
it (him, is inexplicable upon any principle of iI i 
ie , feeling, aff.cuon, or Christianity! ‘Phe Hie 
fd unconcern which slave-holding produces in Hf | 
i \the ‘Iyrants, with respect to the eternal pcace Hi | 
ji—— = z hy 
14 i | 
\44 12 Planters prevent their negros from being ine ae 
structed in a religion which proclaims the equality mM 
of ali men; all proceeding froma common stock, all hit 
parte: pating the benefits of creation, and amon. womy Pia | 
with the Father of men, there is ne ace: paren of Lee 
persons. Slavery is therefore an outage Upy. —urtse 
uanity. Robinson, ei 


il Pia 

i‘ f tt ii 

| F i 

ih 

N 44 SLAVERY ry 

Kp! | | 
\\\ i e . A Pa | 
ad! of their own children, and the salvation of the | 
ih wreich:d objects of their compound avarice,” 

it aud cruelty, evince, that slavery is zmpious, | 


Siuce it tends to exterminate the authority of | |i} | 
/ Jeaovah. la | 
i This subversion of the divine government. | ji, 
»  ¥  Recessarily follows from the adoption of the || fi} 
LIE, that one man can justifiably be so reduced |} 
- to the command of another, as to have no will 
| but that of his director. a 
Man owes to his Creator and Judge duties! 
i" it from the performance of which no terrestrial) | 
1H fl power can possibly absolve him. Among these! } | 
Hi are the cultivation of devotional tempers and| 1a 
Hit the fulfilment of Christ’s requisitions. ‘The! | 
lI Lt existing relation between the Slave-driver and | | 
Cat his vassal, proclaims the impracticability of | | i 
| pi a compliance with his obligations, and con. || i 
ah sequenily, that he who steals a man or keeps [| 
ii him in his hand, is a bold usurper of eciestal )} | 
it jurisdiction, and a merciless violator of human | | # 
} rght, freedom and responsibility. Does not |)! 
i 


t 

hae ; j 

i the absolute uncontrouled dominion which the | 
Master possesses over his slave, render even 


t 
the existence of spiritual-mindcdness almost | | 
| impossible ; by opposing to a regular use of | 
N the means necessary to strengthen a pious | 
aot disposition, vast obstructions which counter- | 
i baiance, if not destroy the force of — the 
Savionr’s claim, and make his commands nu- 
,  gatory 2 When the injunction of God and the 
order of the Slave-tyrant are directly at vari- 


; } DELINEATED. 45 
é 
; 


vance, when the law of heaven and the man- 
| date of the Negro- Thief are both compulsory 
atthe same period, to the earthly authority 

) the slave must primarily submit ; and when 
ay the everlasting welfare of the servant’s soul, 
"and to facilitate the sensual gratifications a 

| his barbarous despot, are placed in competition, 
| -both parties may be condemned by the Most 
|) High, but the doubly cruel Voluptuary must 

‘not be disappointed. 

Slavery is impious, because it strikes directly at 
jj} ithe paternal government of the adorable Father of 
hut ankind, who made nf one blood all the natione 
Kt fi guhon the face of the earth, and who, having fired 
fe ete bounds of their habitations, fills (oar hearte 
Ae with food and gladness.t 
ie Negros are in all respects, except in regard to life 
i HR ‘and death, cattle, They are bougnt and sold, fed or 

jah: ‘kept hungry, clothed or reduced to nakedness, beats 

hd ten, turned out to the fury of the elements, and torn 

Hi y 
, sit} from their dearest connections, with as little remorsc, 
1 Han jas if they were beasts of the field. 

))\ Vheir situation is rendered far more miserable than 
meet they were brutes. Their food is so coarse and bad, 
jj) ithat nothing but necessity could compsi them to cat 

it; while their labour and their punishments are s¢- 

oe and cruel.t 

i Are slaves taught to read, so that thev can 

\Kipernse the divine records ? If one of ten thou- 

{f sand has attained sufficient learning to spell 

‘the plainest passage of Chrisiian instruction, 

ii # is not the labour which attends it, an obstacle 
ito the acquisition of necessary knowledge al- 

dmost in ,uperable 2? But so few of the wale 


i} f 


GSnethin, Acta 14, 17, and (7.26. ¢ Rowland Hill. 


46 shavekt 


body of the coloured race have arrived eve} 
at this stage of illumination, that they are in}) 
a great measure incapacitated to comprehend 
the force of the most homely and common}) 
illustrations of the BOOK.13. 
At the commencement of the vear 1805, 

and while the Legislature were influenced by}, 
the same spirit, which uniformly has directed}, 
all their disgraceful proceedings respecting the 
unfortunate creatures who have been kidnapped, 
and enslaved —in an act concerning these etry) 
of misery a clause was inserted particularly} 
relating to free coloured children, which de}. 
monstrates an unwavering resolution in the 
civil authwities to impede every possible me} 
lioration of she degraded state of these rational, 
cattle. “ It shall not be lawful for the overseers || 
of the poor who may hereafter bind out anyj\ 
black or mulatto orphan, to require the mastel\)\| 
or mistress to teach such orphan, reading, writ), 
ing or arithmetic.”’* What must be the un) 
avoidable result of this impenetrable ignorance. 
How highly must the wrath of Heaven be 


13. This torturing system has been pursued so far a: 
to prevent the developement of the mental facultiesp) 
In Vieginia, they are no allowed to learn to reac. To) 
have b-en able to read cost a black mas his lite He 
demanded, that the Africins should share the ben: fits 
which American liberty p'o nised, ‘and he supported}) 
‘this demas) by the BULL ve RicHrs Che ar.cument} 
was without refily. Vy such cases, where refutarionl |) 
ie impossible, ALL TYRANNIES having features w hich} 
resemble each over; the NEGRO suffred on thhy 
gallows. Gregoire. ® Kevisea Cods}} 9 


i 
DELINEATED. 47 


provoked against us, ior such flagrant dis- 
| honour ©o his name, and such ciucl mjusuce 
to the Gbjccts of his paternal care! 
| The pica of slavery is noi offered ; these 
> are free children, bereft of all parental affections, 
the management and control of whose tender 
years are assumed by the public ; and that 
) ) guthority which proffers them its guardian pro- 
tection and solicitudes, grasps them for no 
other purpose, than to nurture them in re- 
) mediless degradation, What vile hypocrisy ! 
» what unfechng despotism ! what daring im- 
| piety 1 what tremendous rational guilt does 


; 
4, ; 7 . , 
| this corruption involve! We stead the Parents; 


1 Providence liberates them Irom servitude 3 


1) God calls them to his dread bar 5 their children 
)burvive them ; and in offering the fricndless 


Lai prphans the tokens of our mercy, we deny 


“them the noblest privilege of man, we refuse 
‘them all intellectual expansion, we doom them 
I to disgrace during their mortal pilgrimage, 


H the youth whom we have adopted as pat' of 


43 | laine 
4} George III. made their yoke insupportably grievous 5 
Ha but the little finger of some Legislatures is thicker 
Mi thay the British Tyraat’s loins “He chastised them 
AP with whips,’ these REHOBLAMITES “chastise with 
§ 1 Kings 12. I-15. 


«ote 


“ 


48 SLAVERY 


With a fatigued body and a dispirited mind, 
brok n with incessant jabour, tamed by a 
constant privation of every comfort, and often | 
lacerated with severity unmingled with mercy, 
the slave can feel little anxicty to devote any | 
part of that time which ts indispensable to rest — 
his wearied and tortured frame, to the care of 
his soul. How can he be solicitous to mingle — 


with the worship of God inthe -amily where 1@ 


he resides, if devotional forms are maintained! |) 

Ifhe can ascertain the meaning of the Bi. Vd 
ble or the Hymn, or the petitions to the | j 
throne of grace, he must perceive that every) || | 
portion of the exercises condemns the nefar+ H | 
ious temper and the barbarous heart which) | 
reduced him to bondage ; that all which | 


Christianity includes and commands is a con-| i 


tradiction to all that he suffers and that his) | 
Master practises ; and convinced therefore, that |} 
such a profession of religion is delusion or! | 


hypocrisy, he begins to consider Christianity) | 
itself as nothing more than a form d: vised! 


br 


by corrupt men, to conceal their cruel insidious! 
designs and to cloak their malignant actions, | 
he Lord’s day is generally devoted to)— 
pursuits, occupations and pleasures so on 
sonant from the sacred injunction, that the de-| J 
based servant cannot even enjoy it as relaxae| i 
tion from labour. He has no choice: the) 
filth of the week must be his companion,’ 


or the hours must be devoted to necessary) || k 
ablutions ; and thus the opportunities of evan-) | 


E 
‘ 
: 
| 


ei | 
. 
Foal) 


DELINEATED, 49 f } 
' 


[pa petical instruction are inevitably lost : and can 

| Te be ready to attend public worship in duc 

Vt HAS cason, the haughty looks end the contempt. | 
: 4 yous aversion of the Christian AZan-stealers / 
) @ivho are assembled, are of equal validity with | 
“ita formal vote of exclusion from the synagogue. | 

3) Hence the slave abscnts himself altogether 
) 9 sfroma fruitless attendance upon the house of ; | 


8 
0} 
l 


Nat 


“pray rer; and thus is banished from the enjoy- 


it 


(a | “'Gnent of that illumination which is indispens- i 
ibs 


Tuble to the soul’s peace temporal and ever. 
» Masting. If the Son,of Man by his Spirit gra- 
Piciousty maintains the sense and life of god- 
otfiness in the slave’s heart, every thing con- 
| nected with him constantly counteracts the 
1 dwery exterior appearance, as well as the in- Ht 
\{fernal predominance of Religion. ‘The igno- » & 
ie and profane creatures “who are his as. iF 
“\tsociates ; their bestial mode of life by pro- i 
| tmiscuous cohabitation ; the want of requisite 
precy for meditation and prayer ; the con- } 
stant loss of all those means of grace which are fi 
tuecessary and favorable to religious mecliora- 
ion, and the endless disquietude which he si. 
tmust feel, when he endeavors to concatenate hi 
sincere profession of the Christian religion, F 
lneekness and philanthropy, with the turbulent 
espotism and the unmereiful exhibitions of 
his Master, all must, if not totally eradicate 
ithe love of that which is good, so diminish 
its influence, that God is robbed of his glory, 
‘the Saviour of the affection due to him, re- . 


Ba 


Seen as astates 


i 
4 
b 
oh 


ear 


oa et ae 


~ 
= 


ic 


~—— 
~ 


RET EIA DOE TT IS eee 
a 
ae 


wie soeaaniagaag 
SS 
ena eR I —) 


- 
EE SEE eh Pa Er 


ee 
Sa a See 


50 SLAVERY | 
t 
f 


ligion of its ornament, the churcii of tie ser! 
vices of her members, the world of its sai! 
and light, and the soul of the peace which!) 
Christianity was revealed to bestow. Hence, 
as slavery unavoidably extinguishes all religior 
in those who are made wretched by its sway’ 
over them ; the jurisdiction which is claimed) 
and exercised, is. an impious usurpation oj} 
the divine supremacy. 

«Slavery is made upof evcry crime that treachen 
cruelty and murder can invent; and mer-sfealers arp 


the very worst of thieves. \S hat an universal uprea} 
it would make in this land if but one poor child wer 


kidnapped from his parents!" and yet this didnot 
jing is aregular practice among professing Christians 

« These are the people whom the Scripture, describe: 
a3 being fast feeling. The most knavish tricks arti | 


practised by these dealers i human fesh—and if thetd # 


slaves think of our general character, they must sup | 
pose that Christians are Deviis, and that Christianity | 
was forged in IIcll. These slave-purchascrs talk cj. 
a damaged slave, as of a damaged horse ; some war | 
mworking-slavcs, and others éreediug-siaves ; for th 
children of slaves are not, according to the law ¢}| 
nature, the property of their parents, but of the’ 
owners ; and when the planters and their overse 
have children by these negros, instead of regard 
the offspring of their vicious passions, they breed 
and sell their own children in slavery like others— | 
What a dishonour in us to carry on such an abominablt 
¢vaffic and to attemptto vindicate or even to pallisit, 
it, when every principle belonging to it is founded) 
upon incurah/e injustice 4 Shall we call ourselver 


Christians or Devils? can a race of Devils art # ) 


gainst us worse than we do against them? In ar 


+ 
| @ 


and wickedness, as it relates to our principle ani. | 


practice, we abundantly exceed. The horrid busines! 


i DELINEATED. 


a) 
ve 


mene 


i wt slavery in the whole of its establishment is founded 

/ {4 on the “ mammon of unrighteousness,” on a selfish 

Ait) cig love of the world; and the result of this infernal traf- 
| Lic is, a regular system of wholesale licensed thievcry % 

a wd murder. Instead of supposing the principles of 

mit Christianity for a moment allow such a hellish com- 

Ahi f aneree in human blood ; directly as we are made by 

¥ the flower of the gospel, what we should be by the 


¥etter of the law, we are blessed with the spirit of 
‘universal love. 


ee 


Shaveks ae 


Who bear thy saered name, our God, 
Should dare one single man enslave, 
Or shed one drop of human blood.’’* 


ne 

bh 

Ae "We blush with holy shame, that men 
ay 

nN 


—— 
a ae zak 
ue LE aw: 


“The case now lies fully before us ; and we have 
omake our choice, either to join ourselves to these 
‘Manufacturers of human wo, or to renounce the horrid 
sssociation. If we adopt the former, let us avow our 
conduct inits real deformity. Let us not affect to 
‘Replore the calamities attendant on slavery ; nor let 
is pretend to exccrate the conduct of the slave-dealer, 
age slave-halder, or the slavewiiver; but apologize 
for them a our partners in iniquity : and if we now 
ake our share in the transaction, with as little come 
Function we should take theirs ; unless we can sup- 
pose, that we should beconze virtuous, in proportion 
3 the temptation to vice increased: and then, we 
hould not be destituce of subterfuges to destroy the 
scclings of our minds and the convictions of our cons 
WUkciences, Ve are now called upon to redress evils, 
tao comparison with which, all that exist besides, sinks 

beneath our notice. If we refuse, can we form the 
fast firetence to a moral character? if these be de- 


aie Pir Weare ee 


Se ore i 


a 


ao 


A a ete ey Sy Sr erent 


ae 


SLAVERY 


a religious profession to diminish the extent, or wv 
weaken the force and obligation of moral dutics.— 
Do we mean to insult the God whom we pretend t: 
worship, by supplicating him to have mercy upon alll 3 
prisoners and captives, and to defend and provide fos} , 
the fatherless, widows, and al] that are desolate an 
oppressed? lt Christians, after an impartial examin 
tion, are satisfied that slavery is a fair and honest 
and lawful commerce, they ought to encourage it, 
and to reprobate this work as an attcmpt to slande: 
good men, aad to injure their froferty, by holdin: 
it out to the public as the firroduce of robbery ar: 
murder. But if the arguments be valid, will thef’ 
presume to treat the subject with cool indifference 
and continue a criminal practice? However obvioy: 
the duty, yet the mind, hardened hy habit, admits wit 
difficulty the conviction of guilt; and sanctioned bh. 
a cominon practice, we may commit the grossc): 
violations of duty without remorse. It is therefor 
more peculiarly incumbent on us in such situat 

to examine our conduct with the utmost suspicic fk 
and to fortify our minds with moral principles. at 
the sanctions of religion. In proportion as we are w 
der their influence, we shall cxert ourselves to rence 
there evils, knowing that our example, our adob 
tions, our inducnce may produce remote effects, °F 
which we can form no estimate: and which, alich 4 
having done our duty, must be let! to Mim, who Kaverty 
all things after the counsel of his own mutes 


All those who devise or exccute any in 
quitous measures, by which men are impedey ae 
from honoring God, and from performing thy 
duties which they owe to him and their on}. 
souls in their moral relation to their Creatoy. 
are the most contemptuous rebels against hij 
authority : and if they superadd a claim if 


———s 
® Braunagar. er 


DELINEAtER. ve 
competition with the command oi Jehovah, 
chery exeniplify the audacity o£ Satan, who was 
hurled to everlasting despair for attempting to 
dethrone the Sovereign ofthe Universe. ‘This 
charge anplics to every Slave-holder 5 {or ser- 
vices totally incompatible with the devotional 
exercises of the Believer are invariably, at the 
most unseasonabie hours, and during the day 
of rest, required of these unfortunate victims 
of that Savegencss, which by a most diabolical 
infatuation, has been combined with Christi- : 
auity ; and which has long exposed the truths ‘ 
of religion to reproach, the sacred cause to rt 
ridicule, the solemnities of the House of Praver 
to contumely, and the very character of a be- 
jiever to suspicion. While therefore, a power ; 
is usurped and legalized which enables its 
possessor to defy the law of God and to ob- f 
struct the duties of men; and unqualified sub- eb 
mission to every arbitrary, unjust and irre- an 
ligious mandate cannot be evaded, without the 
sacrifice of mortal existence ; slavery must be nb 
the acme of all impiety ; consequently, it is bis 
impossible that a Slave-holder can be a sincere fad 
Christian. Bi 

Slovery is the climax of cruelty. By it 7 ef | 
every affection of the soul is exterminated. It Mt 


PEAR CAA i Aa RAD SD "RR PRD TAR ti AS ik gence cal dala aS cay uSdabhaltea rs ho linalits ae 
SONS pedis eels anes Gap aCe a lanes seen 


SST Oo en eee gi 


WeTSAL 


er ae 


SS ee 


See Sn ee 
FEE PF a ay png ae wa Oe ea de 


ne 
~ 


severs al natural tics, and separates all social | 

relations. Matrimonial engageinents, when it 

commands, are dissolved; the chain which links 

parents and children, by its touch, is shivered 

to atoms; and at its approach, every domestic 
9 


oe 


aA aaa Kit 
See 


} 
4B | 
fl 
v 
ia 


SS 


Sei = Se 
Fain PS 


54 SLAVERY 


duty dies. Hearts, animated by the most de- 
licate love, indulge their mutual affection, not 
for a Vather’s and Mother’s gratulations, but 
for a Jyrant’s gain. Brothers and_ Sisters 
mingle their fraternal sensibilities, not in fu. 
turity to bless each other by reciprocal aid, 
but to increase their unmitigated torments, 
Seldom do they reside many years in the same 
habitation; a transfer is necessary; and it is 
made not according to family or moral con. 
nections, but by the proportionate value in 
different markets. 

What are the pungent feelings and exacer- 
lations of the Slave in every part of his exist- 
ence! Doomed from the earliest period of 
youth to toil, with no necessary relaxation, 
for the gratification of another’s inordinate de- 
sires; pinched by hunger, bereft of raiment, 
denied requisite accommodations at night to 
repose his enervated and emaciated frame ; 
and for the most trifling inadvertency or the 
Most innocent indulgence, scourged by a cruel 
and mercenary Task-Master, unul his stripes 
incapacitate him from active duties ; impeded 
from all religious instruction ; tortured with 
every agonizing anticipation; and terrified by 
the prospect of pain, labour and bereavement, 


‘the miseries of which are diminished by no 


hope of melioration, he travels the pilgrimage 
of life, forgetful of God, himself, and eternity ; 
until the lacerations of his heart urge Him to 
the crime for which by the sacrifice of his 
mortal existence, he atones; or combined with 


yy 


‘ 


pesuetes! 


Srp eats ay et. 


es ew 


SO FOR ALOR ITE a 


ca ea pp ede pr aw PoE 


DELINEATED. 35 


4 diseased body, he drags out his icmporal 
robation amid the unfeeling complaints of 
his Avdnapper, that he can no longer force him 
to fulfil the daily “Pask; the neglect of all 
around him ; and the want of every consola- 
tion both internal and external, which might 
enable him with patience to bear his com- 
plicated affliction. 

« Slavery or the holding of a fellow-creature and 
his posterity in perpetual bondage, is a source of al} 
kinds of cruelty; and is a peculiarly unmerciful 
sysiem. It exposes a man to disgrace, and triumphs 
in his fall ‘Toat slaves are ignorant, barbarous. and 
unpiincipled is the consequenee of their condition. 


Men revard their own interest before the interest of 
their fellow-creatures ; and in despite of ali the rizhts 


* 
SORE thei am OR ssstecaiasal 
. 
- 
me~se re 


| of humanity, have forced them across the ocean, and 
‘@ bound them and their posterity to the severest labour. 
| Immortal souls in slavery! Subjects of the grace of 
4) God, and the purchase of the precious blood of Christ, 
‘in siavery! Beings capable of all the blessings of 
_ civil society, deprived of thein all, to administer to 
the vices and picasure of others! If this ve mercy, 
_ what is not? Hail ye sons of Benevolence ! will you 


sing ?* 
That mercy I to others showy 


That mercy show to me!” 


“ Take a single slave from the millions, who are 
now immured in bondage ; read in his wo-worn face, 
a bricf and striking history of his misfortunes, of his 
antecedeut subjugation and subsequent degradation; 
torn from his friends, how wishlully he takes a lune, 
a last, an cager look at his violated wite and screaming 
children, while the tears trickle down his sable checks; 
he is forced from their embraces, while the atmosphere 
reverberates with theit shricks and groans. When — 


== 


® Snethin. 


ee 


SLAVEBY 


I bring my wife and children in view, and consiic; 
what I should suffer were [ in his situation, my heart 
weeps blood. Passing by his accumulated exci uciation 
while under the whip of his task-master, depict him}. 
in his smoky hut. after the toils of the day ; see th 
tears begin to flow, when he thinks of his wife, his 
children and friends; he lifts his eyes to heaven, sighs, 
and looks at his homely fare, the day’s allowance of 
meal, and bursts into tears. He loaths his daily food, 
as his bodily anguish and mental despair vanquish 
his con.titution. He is languid and feverish 3 yet he 
has no friend, no relative to give him any assistance ; 
again he thinks.on iis family ; but the thought az- 
giavates his malady, and accelerates his end. Ex- 
change cenditions with this siave, and thou canst no: 
bear the picture of his death :”* 

Persons called Christians and Officers of the 
Church, buy and sell the stolen coloured people, 
with little or no regard to their wishes or}: 
alficctions. The debased Servants are deprived} 
of necdtul sustenance, are supplied with little 
and very insufficient raiment, and possess no 
suitable conveniencies for refreshing rest.— 
‘Fhey are unmercifully and in general unde- 
servedly chastised ; their health, intellects, re- 
ligion, morals, peace and comfort are all dis- 
regarded, except the Despot’s interest woul 
be affected by neglecting them : and this dia. 
bolical machination cannot exist, without the 
perpetual exhibition of this malignity by the 
Slave- Tyrant. Does this degradation include 


no cruelty 2. Do these privations result from 


the pure and undefiled Religion which Jesus 
taught his disciples on the mount? Is this 


—— 


* Brannagan. 


| DELINEATED. 57 
| 


j) that lucid proof of condescending love to the i 
|) Brethren which your Master demands ? Is if 
(Soll this the justice that the two commandments 
| on which hang all the Law and the Prophets 


inculcate 2 Is this the merey which the Book 
enjuins us to display to the wretched, the tn- 
digent, and the oppressed? And can that 
main, whose heart with perennial uniformity : 


pole 


} 
| 
? 
i . : s angles 
| evinces the predominance of those principles 
| chat produce stich consequences, Mor entarily 
| believe, upon scriptural authority, that he 1s 
| transformed into the similitude of His who 
| was meek and lowly in heart ; or tan he une . 
| feignedly afirin, i know, that Lam passed front Ms 
| death unto life, because | love the brethren? 15. 
| For this thing which it cannot bear, the earth /. 
| 4 


a Pierre 


oe ee arn eee = i 
ee ee sm orn eee 


ee 


% 


Lar Sere ae 
Tieetiie 


a 


Seana © Cab Ts 


ES ie oe 


} 

i 

| 

is cisguieted. Phe Gospel of Peace and Mercy 
preacicd by him who steals, buys and sells 

| the purchase of Messiah?» biood !—Ruters of 

} 

j 

i 


erty 
a. 


the Church enakiig merchancize of their bre- 


—— 


15. © Thou wordling, who, with a prudence trulg raat 
infernal, hast the art to give a beautiful tint to the % 
most odious objects; who appearest not to hate thy i 
neighbour, because thou dost not openly attack him ; the. 
not to falsify thy promise, because thou. hast the art 
of eluding it ; not to oppress thy dependents, becase ihe 
thou knowést how to impose silence on them; J sazy ay 
thee, when thou gavest those secret stabs, when thou wi 
didst receive bribes, when thou cidst negociate the Wy 
blood of the miserable, when thou didst trafic the a 
blood of the oppressed, and didst accuirulate those ; 
weees of unrighteousness, which cry for vengeance “tj 
against thes.’ Sauriz. iyi 


ar 


a Se mae — 


re ee == = - = : ane 


58 SLAVERY 


éhren’s souls !—and Christians trading the pres 
sons of men!—Logers of ther own selves: 
Covetous; Proud; Fierce; Men of corrupt | 
minds, who resist the truth ; Having a form | 
af godliness, but denying the power ihereof— 
trom such turn away.* 

The Slave-holder’s claim is founded on false. 
hood. So completely have the varied vicious 
dispositions which ettend man-stealing blinded 
the eves and indurated the hearts of Flesh- 
Merchants that they converse respecting slaves 
as their property, with as much gravily, as 
if they were honestly acquired. and as if so 
law had been violated. ‘This infatuation has 
infected not the open reprobate only, who 
neither fears God nor regards man, but the 
professed believer in Christianity, thereby de. 
monstrating the evil nature, the hardening, 
blinding tendency, and the consummat: deceit: 
fulness of sin. 

He who steals his brethren, and selis them, 
and makes merchandize of them pleads : 
that the victim of wrong is legalized porperty ; 
that the slave is equally a transferable pos- 
session with any other acguisition; that he is 
chargeable with no crime for having invested 
some of his money in souls and hands ; that 
all the progeny of the creatures whom he 
originally purchased of right belong to him ; 
and that he violates no rule of equity, ne 
moral principle, and no Christian affection by 
accumulating wealth through this medium, 

* 2 Timothy 3. 2~2 


eS ee 


DELINEATED. 4S 


On the contrary, we asseverate ; that no 
-yational being can, by any transmutauion pos- 
sible, ever become property ; that no terrestrial 

legislators, without the most diabolical im- 
piety, can legalize this claim upon the human 
family ; that to trafhe in flesh and blood ant. 
mated by the reasoning capacities Is the greatest 
practicable indignity which can be ofied to 
mon as iMertals 5 that he purchased ap are 
iticle, which be kiew at the time of the pre- 
i tended transfer was stolen ; that every coloured 
chiid born in his house, whic he claims and 
holds as his property is shamelessiv kidnap. 
/ped; and that every principle of justice, de- 
cency, order, rectitude and religion, is annulled 
by this most unrighteous claim and its eflvc!s, 
Nothwithstanding, he demands to be recogni. 


Noe Bae eee 


SES Se 


a i eee 


no et ne 
SSS 


sa OSES 


crest 


ae 


zed as a sincere, consistent Christian ! 16, 


16. “Tt is in a high degree unjust and cruel, to 
reduce one human creature to such an abject state, 
that he may minister to the ease, luxury or avarice 
of another? Has not that other the same right to 
have him reduced to this state, that he may minister 
/‘o his interest or pleasure? On what is this right 

founded? Whence was it derived? Didit come from 
’ heaven, from earth or from hell? Has the great King 

of Heaven, given this extraordinary right to white 
over black men? Where is the charter? In whose 
hands is it ledged ? Thus reducing men, is an indignity, 

a degradation to our own nature. When we plead 
_ for slavery, we plead for the disgrace and ruin of our 
| OWn nature. If we are capable of it, we may hereafter 
' claim kindred with the brutes, and renounce our own 
| Saperior dignity.” ‘ Rice. 

: Ah | —— 


v 


60 SLAVERT 


«© Ina state of nature, no man has a right to seize 
upon another, and to compel him by force to Jabour 
for bis subsistence. But independent communities 
stand to cach other in the very same relation that 
individuals do in a state of nature ; and therefore if 
th= man of greater bodily strength or mental sagacity 
would have no right to convert his weaker neighbour 
into personal property, neither can the more powerful 
and enlightened nation have a right to carry off by 
force or entice by fraud, the subjects of a weaker and 
more barbarous community, for the purpose of re- 
ducing them to a state of servitude. Hence, the 
American right to purchase cannot be better than the 
African rightto self ; and no man can offer the shadow 
of a reason, why one African has a right to sell an- 
other. The right cannot be natural ; because natural 
rights are those which a man has to his life, limbs 
and liberty, to the produce of his personal labour, and 
to the use in common with otheis of air. light and 
water; but these privileges are inalicnable. That every 
man has a natural richt or just clarm to these things 
is evident from their being absolutely necessaty 
enable him to «uswer the purpose for which he was 
made a living aud rational being. This shews un- 
deniably that the Author of his nature designed that 
he should have the use of them, and that the man 
who wantonly deprives him of any one of these is 
guilty of a breach of the divine law. When slaves 
are brought to Market, no questions are asked about 
the origin or justice of the vendor's title; but they 
are piaced for life in subjection to a dominion and 
system of laws, the most merciless and tyrannical that 
ever were tolerated upon the face of the earth ; and 
the inordinate authority which the Jaws conler upon 
the Slave-holder is exercised with the utmost rigour 
and brutality. The right cannot be adventitious ; for 
adventitious rights are immediately derived from the 
municipal law, which is the public will of the state. 
Bat the state has no just authority to deprive an ins 


Le 


ae 


“A, Dank tater nore er 


DELINEATED. 6 


jocent man of his personal freedom, or of the produce 
of his own labour; for it is only to secure these, by 
protecting the weak from the vislence of the strong. 
that states are formed and individuals united under 


/ civil government. 


“ Tt may perhaps be said, that by patiently sub- 


mitting to governments which authorise the traffic ip 
‘human flesh, men virtually give up their personal 


liberty, and invest their governors wtth a right to sell 


“them as slaves: but no man can invest another with 


aright which he possesses not himscif: and in a state 


of nature, where all have equal rights, no individual 
can submit himself to the absolute disposal of another 


without being guilty of the greatest crime. From 


the relation in which men stand to one another as 


fellow-creatures, and to God as their common Creator, 
there are duties incumbent upon each peculiar te 
himseif; in the perfermance of which, he can be 
guided only by his own reason, which was given hin 


fcr that very purpose. But he who renounces his . 


personal freedom, and submits unconditionally to the 


_ caprice of a master, impiously attempts to set himseif 
‘free from the obligation of that law which is inter 


woven with his very being, and chooses a director 
ot Wis conduct different from that which God has as- 


signed him. A man therefore cannot reduce himseli 
' to a state of uncondition:] servitude, and what he can- 


aot do for himself, he cannot authorize others to-do 
for him, by a tacit or an open ‘consent.’”’F 


These principles result from our situation 


as rational creatures. Human life is altogether 
placed out of the controul of any terrestrial 


power, except in those exireme cases, where 
for the welfare of the body politic, it is in- 
dispensable to extirpate a pest. But the 

+ Encyclopedia Brittanica. 


ig 


SLAVERY 


teans necessary to preserve that existence, 
and to execute the varicd duties for which 
it was originally imparted, are equally requis- 
ite to its possessor. Slavery annihilates all, 
Man is justly subjected to moral law: but 
property, a slave who has no wall, cannot be 
the proper object of rewards and punish- 
ments. 


“ A young woman, in the state of servitude, would 
not be able to maintain her virtue against the solicita- 
tions of a niaster who should promise her liberty, or 
d remission of toil, upon ber yielding to his desiices ;” 
and for such refusal, many chaste females have been 
most barbarously lacerated, until agony forced a re- 
Juctant compliance with the debauched tyrant’s lust. 
‘4 slave would not strenuously object to the per- 
petiation of any wickedness to obtain his freedom, or 
even a diminution of j.is daily task: indecd those 
temptations might be thrown in bis way, which human 
natuie could not resist, but by means of the most 
yracious principles; even then he might be scourged 
into compliance ; or his labour might be so increased 
as to make him, for a little respite eagerly embrace 
the most nefarious proposal which his master could 
offer ; for being absolute pioperty, there is no earthly 
tribunal to which he could appeal for justice; and 
very few slaves support theniseives under their trials 
by the recollection of a future judgment.’’* 


| 


ee ETE gg be SAS 


eS 


Slaves after having thus perpetrated the 
crimes projected by their despots, have been 
arraigned upon the charge and evidence of 

- their merciless tyrants, have been feloniously 
condemned and ignominiously deprived of life; 
to screen the master from disgrace, and for 


* Encyclopedia Brittanice. 


az tat 


wen 


etna ame a 
Ee ee a EO Ny an et ik Sr LN Bp 9 a otunnGhages eT 


SELINEATED, OL 


. the aake of the value which is allowed to 
every individual, for the criminal whom he 
had previously seduced to violate the law, 
and then contrived under the sanction of its 
forms, to murder, "Vhe legislative act which 
allows the master an adjudged price for his 
guilty slave, is the very compound of all un- 
righteousness. 


“ Some Slave-holders have been insticated by avarice 
and other worse principles, to compel the creatures 
who are so absolutely their dependents, to engage in 
deeds of darkness too hazardous for themselves. The 

, moralfty or the immorality of any action and the moral 
fitness of any state are to be judged by their moral 
tendency, if the one were universally practised, and 
the other universally prevalent; and as the natural 
- tendency of absolute domestic slavery among such 
creatures as men is to throw the most powerful tempta- 
tions to vice in the way both of Master and Slave ; 
slavery must be in every instance, inconsistent with 
the fundamental principles of moral virtue.”’$ “ It is 
the double curse of slavery, to degrade all who are 
concerned with it doing or suffering; and the slave 
himsel! is the dowest in the scale of human beings 
except the Slave-Dealer.t”’ 


Seer ae 


“The Negro, spoil’d of all that nature gave 
The free-born man, thus shrunk into a slave, 
His passive limbs to measured tasks confined, 
Obeys the impulse of another’s mind ; 
Denied, though sought with tears, the sad relief 
: That misery loves, the fellowship of grief. 

Not for himself he wakes at morning-light, 

Toils the long day and seeks repose at night ; 
His rest, his labour, pastime, strength and health, 
Are only portions of a master’s wealth ; 


er 


t Encuclonedia Brittanica, + Montgomery. 


a 


a 


eee See ere Re 


a= 


ee ee 


‘ 
| 
i 
f 
t 
| 
§ 
fi 
ae 
I 
4 


SLAVERY 


His love! © name not love, when Christians doom, 
The fruit ef love to slavery from the womb. 

“ Lives there a savage ruder than the slave? 
Cruel as death, insatiate as the grave, 
Js he who toils upon the wafting flood, 
A Christian Broker in the trade of blood 5 
Boisterous in speech, in action prompt and bold, 
He buys, he sells—he steals, he kills for gold. 

“ Lives there a reptile baser than the slave? 
Loathsome as death, corrupted as the graves 
See the dull Creole,f at his pompous board, 
Attendant vassals cringing round their Lord 5 
He stalks abroad; through ali his wonted rounds, 
The Negro trembles, and the lash {>sounds. 
This is the veriest wretch on natu’: § face, 
Own’d by no country; spurn’d hy every race. 
His soul;—has he a soul; whose sensual breast 
OF selfish passions is a serpent's vest? 
Whose heart mid scenes of suTeving senseless grown. 
E’er in his Mothber’s inp was c'/!"d to stone; 
Whose torpid soul iv C izs Move ; 
A stranrer to the te.derisess of love. 
His motley baram chirms his gtoating eyes 
Where ebon, biow. and olive beauties vie ; 
His children, sprung alike from sloth and vice, 
Ave born his slaves, acd loved at market firtce » 
Has he a soul ?—With his departing breath, 
A form shall hail him at the gates of death, 
“Tire spectre Conscience,—shrieking threuzh the gloom, 
Man, we shall meet again beyond the tomb.” § 


A human creature is not an article of trafic. 
for the law of God gives not the absolut 
disposal of one man’s life and freedom t 
another. What he has not made an objec 
of donation, can never be bestowed by a cres 
ture; and as no person can possibly offt: 


¢ Man-thief or Slave-holder. § Montgomery, 


DELINEATED. 95 


| amy equivalent for a human soul, no purchase iy 
‘|. could ever be honestly made of a rational bes. i! 
/to\) ing; and of course, he never could be even . } 
| || alaimed, much less stolen and transferred witn- 
| out the highest degree of iniquity: for no 
terrestrial power can possibly legalize that’ 
which God has peremptorily prohibited. 17. 

Many persons propagate the notion, that | 
the acts of earthly Lawgivers can make any 
practice legal, however base and corrupt its 

tendency : upon the validity of this sentiment, | 

the superstructure of “detaining men in sla- i 

very? is founded. How does the dove of i0- mee 

ney destroy the vision and deaden the sen- 

sibilities of those who are delivered over to 

Ra isway boo er, ts 
Our civil institutions are professedly es- yo} 

tablished upon their conformity with the word 

of God : and the fundamental principles of the 


17. Human legislators should remember, that they i 
act in subordination to the great Ruler of the Uni- , <8} 
verse, that they have no power to take the govern- ass 
ment out of his hand, or to enact Jaws contrary to aS 
his mandates; that if they atiempt it, they cannot make , 
that right which he has declared wrorg 5 and that hd 
they cannot dissolve the allegiance of his subjects qty] 
and transfer it to themselves and thereby frec theme | 4 
selves or the people from their obligations to obey | 

hel 


ean 


re 


Pane oS ome ae 


Minas Rnd 


the laws of nature. Legislatures have vot this authori i; 
* ty; and a thousand laws can never make that znno- ih 
cent, which the divine law pronoun:es criminal; of vce |, 
give them a right to that which the divine law for~ ee 
_ bids them to claim.” Rice. : 


2. ie 


SSeS 


SLAVERY 


social compact, as they are declared in the 
Bills of Rights adopted by the several states, 
are generally in unison with the decisions of 
the sacred volume. But ali these standard 
declarations of liberty and justice directly con. 
demn the terrestrial authority which infringes § | 
the 1ights of man, and presuppose, if ther do 
not openly avow, our dependence upon God, 
and the obligation to obey his law, to be par. 
amount to any other claim or relation. ‘The B & 
Leaders of the last generation are chargeable fF @ 
with the most consummate hypocrisy. Be- [| 
fore the world, they boldly denounced the ‘l’y- 
rant of Great-Britain; that he would force § 
the introduction of Africans into these states, f 
as slaves. Having thus solemnly challenged 
mankind to the contemplation of his unrigh. 
tecous conduct, whose “ insupportable despo- 
tism,”? they forcibly rejected ; they authorized 
the importation of kidnapped Africans during 

a period of thirty years; the whole union is 
included in the stigma of having licensed the 
enormities of this complicated system of mora: 
turpitude, and national infamy, this most in- 
iquitous traffic of “incurable injustice” and 
barbarity ; anda system which afforded ample 
subject for the display of eloquent invective 
when applicd to a foreign Despot, is still sanc- 
tioned by the law of the land, and the a- 
varicious, dissipated propensities of the citi- 
zens, although it is directly opposed to truth, 
decency, virtue, conscience and God. 18, 


trac i Tp 


A { 
fat 

ja 
4 


a ee ed 
ven, aA hoe: aa irae Ivers Foie 


ae Sa eee Le ~ 


o7 


| DELINEATED. cx 


Every ramification of the doctrine, that one 
yational creature can become the property of 
1 |) another, 3» totally repugnant to the rule of 
(1+ equity, the rights of nature, and the existence 
1), of civil society. ‘Terrestrial governments are 
| established for no other purpose, than to ex- 
“hi  ecute the divine will, to secure our individ. 
wal immunities, and to promote the harmony 
and prosperity of those, whose national affairs 
they direct. Hence, the atrocious crime 
for which the men of 1776 declared George 
IIL. a tyrant, unworthy to reign over a free 
people, may be retorted upon themselves, 
and with the additional obloquy that results 
from their own censures attached to its per- 
petration. 

Every attempt to palliate this enormity 1s 
nugatory. Of all his natural and inahenable 
privileges, the slave is virtually, if not actually 
divested ; his life is of no value to him for 
he cannot devote it to anv useful purposes; 
his liberty has altogether flown, for he is in- 
carcerated only in an enlarged prison; and 
he is defrauded of all ability or capacity or 
opportunity to pursue the innocent and lau- 
daile enjoyments, which Providence ma) place 
within his attainment. Whatever may be the 


England, she declared that all men have the same 
rights. After having manifested her hatred against 
tyrants, ought ‘she to have abandoned her principles ? 

Othello. .; 


18 When Columbia opposed the pretensions of — 


ee Sen 


LF TR? a RE Scan elect > 0 ew 


i733} SLAVERY 


legislative decision or permision, with what. 
ever impious usurpations those who assen- 
ted to it may be chargeable, the claim to a 
fellow-creature as property originated in the 
vilest depravity of man, is perpetuated by the 
hard-heartedness and self-delusion of sinners, 
and cannot be justified by the acts, however 
formal and numerous of any terrestrial gov- 
ernment. 

The cxhibition of our Brethren and Sisters 
in a public market for sale and hire; the ex- 
amination to which they must submit that 
their condition may be ascertained, and the 
remarks which they must hear upon their va- 
ried capacities, are the greatest insult to de- 
corum, the highest violation of rectitude, and 
the vilest outrage which can be offered to 
humanity. Justice frowns upon the obdu- 
rate transgressor, who has so far obliterated 
his senses as to be unable to distinguish ra- 
tional creatures from Horses and Cows; yet 
these displays, transfers of human flesh ani- 
mated by an immortai spirit, professed Chris- 
tians behold without any pungency of soul; 
until the beneficence of the Gospel has van- 
ished, and sordid gold becomes the centre 
of every affection and desire. 

Reciprocity is a principle acknowledged by 
all mankind, incorporated with all our fcel- 
ings, and adopted in all our intercourse, and 
when it is equitably and impartially admin- 
éstered, it furnishes a safe ground of conduct 


an ere SS sete = 
= ' = = Nn ag mre 
ai ek eo == x 2 


Se 


DELINEATED. £9 


sa all our relative acts. As thou hast done, 
shall be done unto thee; thy rewird shall 
return upon thine own head.* ‘This retalia- 
tory docirine, demonstrates that the bondage 
af the huinan species, must be contradictory 
to truth and right; because they who are 
guilty of the highest oppression, would not 
admit the validity of the claim, were an at- 
tempt-made to enforce it upon themselves 19. 

What an intolerable evil! How incredibie ! 
How disgraceful! that men in the Land of 
Liberty and filling official stations under the 
authority of the Boox, require to be instruc- 
ted, that to steal, buy and sell men, women 
and children is contrary to the Gospel; that 
+o defraud the labourer of his hire, to robs 


the mind of necessary heht and the heart of . 


indispensable melioration, and’to doom the ha- 
man race to labour lasting as their existence, 
without food, raiment, a habitation, and other 


— 


* Obadiah. 5. 

19. Taere is nothing useful but what is just there 
is no law of nature which makes one individual de- 
pendent on 3nother: ana all those laws which reasom 
disavows, have no force. Every person brings witk 
him into the world his title to freedom. Social con- 
yentions have circumscribed its use, but its limits ought 
to be the same for all the members of the comunity, 
whatever be their origin, colour or religion.t If 
you have a right to make another rhan a slave, he 
has a right to make you a slave. If we have no 
right to sell him, no one has a right to puechase 
him.§ 

t Be Gente. $ Rice. § Rameay 


ij c "SLAVERY 


necessaries to support life and recruit vatare 
i; exhausted by endless fatigue; are totally in- 
| compatible with the precep:, do justly, love 
" mercy, and walk humbly with God;* and 
i that all who engage in this odious and most 
| crimimal violation of the eighth commandment, 
i) Should cease every pretension to Christianity, 
M" Should Providence ever permit the same 
,! misery and Wrens, in One insiance only, to 


Nh assail us which we have inflicted, the 
He nation would as one manrise to arms. Could 
i a single vessel from the Gold-coast arrive on 


our shores, with impunity escape, and carry 
| away a hundred families of our white popu- 
lation; the injustice, the enormity, the hae 
| elty and the abomination of the act wuld be 
fuk dilated upon, until language had lost the Trac. 
ii ticability of illustrating the subject, and el. 
1 Oquence itself had ceased to interest. But 
i nearly 200 years was this disgraceful proce. 
| dure, tolerated and legalized, by successive 
generations of Columbians ;—for a long time 
they declared that it was against th¢ir con. 
Sent, the practice being enforced by foreign 
arbitrary power: but their insincerity is ap- 
Parent; for as soon as Providence enabled 
them to discard all external jurisdiction, they 
voluntarily imbued their hands in Negro blood, 


and voraciously grasped the price of Alrican 
souls, 20. 


il Se 
* Micah 6. 8. 
20. Is it not shameful to speak as a philosopher, 


_—— 
a 
6 REED On SE 


peeks 
————— 


SEAS e Ey waite a 


RR PR A ATEN 


poems 


" 


5 
] 
o> 

; 


DELINEATED: y° 


Retaliation! How complete would be the 
petrifaction of a feeling heart, io see his 
wife and daughter in the rude hands of an 


unfecling, mercenary debauchee, maintained, 


as long a> conyenicnt, for impure indulgen- 
ces, and then transferred by the wretch, with 
the offspring of his illicit intercourse, Ars own 


* children, to anothcr unprincipled ‘Tyrant, trom 
him to receive similar insults, with him to 


realize the same degradation. You cannot 


contemplate without horror, the involuntary 
‘transportation of your family to Guinea; there 


tobe debased in multiform wretchcdness with- 
aut hope, each member of the family severed 
from vou at an impassable distance, «an d 
vou obliged to form an unwilling connection 
wih another, that you may gencrate rational 
rattle like to yoursclf, for the increase of your 


'Tyrant’s wealth, 


From this view, you with abhorrence avert 


your cyes; you shudder at the mention of 
such detestable atrocity ; you declare that e- 


very claim upon you, marked by such char- 


acteristics, is totally null, because it is foun- 


ded upon a fe; you aver that all the con- 
stituted authorities, even all the people of every 
aation in Africa combined, could never trans- 


——= 


and to act as a despot; to make fine discourses on 
slavery, and to annex as a commentary, an actual 
ppression. The tegislative system oueht to harmonize 
with the principles of the government Docs. thiy 
Marmony exist in a constitution reputed free, if slavery 
S sanctioned by authority ! Pinkney. 


—— 
Ses 


arr 


ee 
= pp heeame iF. > 
ener a 


‘Vv 


were Christian cannet engage in this malev. 


%2 SLAVERY 


form this fiction into verity, and this velest of 
all thefts ito justice 5 and you would resent. | 
fully complam, ihat ‘ this mischievous kidnap. 
ping, purchase, sale and transfer of me, as 
if 1 were a horse or an ox mercly for la- 
bour, while ] am not treated with as much 
care and kindness as that to which those beasts — | 
are accustomed, is the very quintessence of § Hii) 
all infernal brutality.” Your doctrine is ir- Bj 
refutable ; it is se/f-evident ; it is so true, that B: Hi 
it can neither be denied nor proved. 

Can you, therefore, hold a slave 2? 1 sin. 


olent commerce; this compound of all turpi- & 
tude. A Preacher of the Gospel ought not to F 
be patiently listened to-even, who eloquently B 
depicts the blessings of that Liberty with which 
Christ hath made us free, while he holds his F 
fellow-disciple, him to whom he administers F 
the symbols of a Saviour’s redeeming love, & | 
in a most dreadful and lacerating bondage. 
An officer of the Church cannot without the f 
most deplorable ignorance of himsclf, pretend f 
to belicve and solemnly cngage to imculeate 
the doctrines of the Presbyterian Confession 
of Faith, and the Methodist Discipline, who 
enslaves, purchases, transfers, whips, neglects, 
starves, and by these accumulated wrongs, f - 
probably kills the purchase of Messiah’s blood? F | 
Th: Pulpit is dumb and the Lord’s Tablets f 
polluted; because Preachers aud Lay -Officers § 

need to be taught that the greatest possible 


th) 
\ i ’ eS 
ie ee 
! ones : E 
it DELINEATED. 5 b 
| 


“i violation of the eighth commandment, cannot 
Pe uiat . . . } 
“yi without the most awful delusion be reconcil- } 
-| ed with a credible profession of Christianity. +8 
‘“¢ rom what class of persons however low and un. 

educated, can you find men so generally dull and | 
senscless as to have no feeling to the wretchedness ‘ 
of personal slavery? What arrogance and blasphemy | 
it i3 it to suppose that Providence has nut endowed 
J) men with equal feelings in all countrics! Let us 

‘son to the words of cur Saviour; let us deeply weigh 
one cf the most sp!endid doctrincs of ine Christian 
_ dispensation, a doctrine, which served more than any 


ne 


ub} 
/ 1.) other to illustrate the wnparallelled beauty and grand- ty 
{ et) cur of that most araiable of all religions; a doctrine, ya 
very Ht : 


before which slavery was forced to fy; and to which 
doctrine, I attribute the memorable and slorious fact,’ 
that soon aficr the establishmicnt of Christianity in : 
Europe, human slavery was abolished. This doctrine ‘ 
isy high and low, rich and fost, ere equal in the sight 
of God! This is a doctrine which requires only to 
de ‘daily imapressed on the heart of man ¢o extinguish 
the term of slave; ana accordingly, what all the an« 
cient systems failed to do, Christianity accomplished ; 1 
and, yet we find in’ the ancient systems of philosophy, 
_ a liberality and views of human rights as perfect as 
‘in any theories of the present day. ‘Lo the pure lighe 
Which this great doctrine of our Saviour diffused cyer 
the heart of man, the avolition of Slavery must be “i 
ascribed. ’’Y rat 
Let Alric’s sons before his image bow, pi 
_ And weave their palmy garlands for his brow, } 
_ Who crown’d the work that Clarkson’s zeal began, 
And raised the negro to the rights of man. 
Fox, call’d to office in an arduous hour, 
Employ’d his ebb of life-shis span of power, - 4 
To hush the stovm of nations to repose, ut 


Se 


SSeS 


_ To heat the Jong afflicted Lybian’s wos, 


§ Charles James Fox. 
G | 


irae 


csaeees ne ly ail reir 
ee ae eel 


" { i 
i} 
' ref SLAVERT 
\ hi ; A 
it ¥rom Christian’s brows to wipe the sanguine sti, WM 
\ Awd free his country from the curse of Cain.’ 
Uh “J rest this question on the ground of Religion 
ty snd justice. A spirit of fanaticism and bigotry may 
Ih ve fairly urged on my opponents and not on me. 
Hf Yheirs ave the very principles on which have been 
vested the grossest systems of bigotry and supersti- 
ti, tion that ever disgraced the annals of mankind. On 
what other principles was it that Mahomet sent forth 
i his Mussulmen to ravage the world? Was it not 
Hy these that lighted the fires of the inguisition f Ilave 
i not both of these systems been founded cn the notion 
, (ee of your having a right to violate the laws of justice, 
1h for the purposes of humanity? Did they net both 
Fm plead that they were promoting the eternal happiness 
of mankind; and that their proceedings were there- 
i fore to be justified on the cictates of true and enlarged 
va Senevolence? But the relicion I profess is of an- 
| other naire; it teaches me first to do justice, and 
next to Jove mercy; not that the claims of these two 
will ever be reaily found to be jarring and inconsistent. 
| When you obcy the law of God, when you attend to 
| if the clainis of justice, you wili then also best consult 
if and most advance the happiness of mankind. This 
fy | is true, this is cnlarped benevolence ; whose seat is 
i the bosom of God, her yoice the harmony ofthe world: § 
i all things in heaven and earth do her homage ; the — 
very least as ficling her care, the greatest as not 
i exempted from her influence: all with uniform con- 
vl aan sent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and 
oi on 
tn * Some persons declare without reserve, that religion, 
a and justice, and humanity command the abolition of 
slavery, but that they must oppose the meastire be- 
' cause it is inconsistent with the national interest. What 
is this but to establish a compegition between God 


| 
il — 


i) t Martin Archer Skee. 


aerate tae 


ee a 


new 


eis c ~ a eS ee ee 
ee 


oe 


DELINEATED. BE tise 
aod Mamionu, avd to adjudge the preference to the 
‘ater £° What but to dethrone the moral Governor 
of the World, and to fall dowa and worship the idol 
of Interest? Come, learn a now cole of morality ! 
We have discarded our old prejudices; we have dis- 
covered that reliyion, and justice and humanity, are 
mere rant and rhapsody. These are principles which 
Epicurus would have rejected for their impiety, and 
Machiavel and Borgia would have disclaimed as too 
infamous for avowal, and soo lajurious to the reneral 
interests of mankiod. “If God inj his aner would pu. 
nish us for this formal renunciation of his authority, 
What severer vengeance could be inflict than our suc. 
cessful propagation of these accursed maxims? 

If we determine to surrender ourselycs without re- 
Serve to the domination of hard, unfeeling avarice ; 
to sell ourselves for gain; let us achieve some clearly 
profitable villany, some masterstroke of wickedness; 
we shall then be justified on our own principles ; but 
Slavery incurs the utmost guilt in pursuit of the smallest 
aod most questionable profit, and discredits not your 
hearts only, but your understandings. 


As slavery ougit indisputably ta be considered a 
Most €normous crime ; it is our Cuty to prohibit and — 
puaish, if we cannot effectually annihilate the perpe- 
tration of it. I can admit of no compromise when the 
commands of equity and philanthropy are so imperious. . 
I wash my hands of the blood that will be spilled. 
I protest against it, as the most flagrant violation 
of every principle of justice and humanity, I never 
will desert the cause. In my task it is impossible 
to ttre ; it fills my mind’ with complacency and peace. 
At night I lie down with composure, and rise to it 
i I never will desist 


ta the morning with alacrity. 
from this blessed work. 


Wilberforce. 


Fa OE SE LENT EOI eee —— 


ee 


tI) 
| 
thay 
ii 
1 
Al 


4 


aanced 
Sg ies ts ns ob 


CR aR Pic 


<< 


"6 ~LAVENYS 


"Theft is the acquisition of another's goa, 
without returning him a satisfactory equiva. 
tent: but the worst of all robbers is he whe 
steals not the bodies only, but the life and the 
souls of men; and for this felony, no restituti- 
on or remuneration can be made. 

Every African: introduced into this country 


/V was kidnapped. They never voluntarily entered 


¢ 


a slave-ship ; and had they even contracted to 
sell their personal freedom, and that of their 
posterity for ever, the contract was void ; for 
by no compact, could they alienate their inhe- 
rent rights. But the theft of the Father and 
‘Mother, in a Slave-holder’s system of morals, 
authorizes him to stea/ the son and the daugh- 
ter, through all generations. 

Our horror at the robbery of the Negros in 
Congo, is mitigated by the distance at which 
the villany is performed ; but how can men, § 
who have been kidnapping coloured people, § 
from their infancy in America, be so misera- 
bly self-deluded, so awfully blinded, as not to 
know that the highest sin on the Gold-Coast, 
when perpetrated in Columbia, is vastly ag- 
gravated, by the splendid illumination which § 
we enjoy on all religious subjects—how cat 
Christian Professors expose themselves to de- 
rision, by gravely declaring that Hawkins and 
his gang were Negro- Thieves, 300 years af° F 

* on the coast of Africa, but they who have f 
practised his abominations, through all suc: 
ceeding ages here. are innocent Slave-holders? | 


eT ee 


—= 


cape 


as 


DELINEATED. 77 


How dure Expositors of the Boox attempt 
to persuade persons who hold Slaves, that the 
proceeds of man-stealing are now transformed 
into honest acquisitions ; that incurable injust- 


ice on the Windward shore, by a voyage over. 


the ocean, is transmuted into Christian integ. 
rity; and that a man who kidnaps a Parent 
is a Monster of Hell; but if he steals chil. 
dren, he is an Heir of Heaven ? 2), 

31. Every Slave in the Union, has been barbar- 
ously stolen; all che traffic in Slaves is irreconcilable 
with the principles Of justice and humanity ; and ey- 
ery Vegro- Dealer, as Moses and the Supreme law of 
the land pronounce, is a cruel THIEF, 

A man who would buy a stolen horse, when he 
Was privy to the robbery, is innocent, compared with 
a Slave-furchaser ; for the former, if convicted, will 
acknowledge his Built; but the latter, with his accu- 
mulated iniquity, pleads that *e is not guilty, while 
he kidnaps his ucighbour ; and that he abets not theft, 


by receiving woods Knowing them to be stolen, though © 


he beheld the Trader rod the froferty. 

From the woinb, the child is doomed to all the 
horrors of bondage, and its birth excites joy, only 
because it aggrandizes wealth; for a Tyrant grasps 
it, notwithstanding a Father’s claim, a Mother’s affec- 
tion, and in Opposition to the command of God, the 
law of nature, the dictates ef equity, and the thun- 
der of conscience. Thus Professors act, and seduce 
their progeny into the ungodly practice. 4 Sinner 
redeemed by grace divine! A chimera! His portion 


‘in Jesus délivered him not from man-stealing, and if 


there were no Penitentiary, he would Purloin a horse 
or an estate: and to steal @ beast, or to defraud a 
Man of a section of land, is a vastly inferior crime, 
iN the balance of the Sanctuary, than to kidnap, buyy 
tell, or hold @ Slave, ; 


2 


i a eA PEE aes 


my Ec ganna en 
Se agette mens = 


i 
ih 
nea! 
me 
\ 


i 
ney 
fil 


78 SLAVERY 


Slavery is unlawful and unscriptural. A Chiistiat. 
must do unto others, What he would that others should 
do unto him; but no slave-holder would have others 
to enslave himself; therefore slavery is contrary to 
Christianity. Love worketh no tll to his neighbour ; 
put slavery works the greatest ill: it is contrary to love. 

“You are a professor of Religion; you believe that 
all mankind are brethren ; that God is their Father; 
that Jesus Christ died for men; that men ought to 
glorify hima in body and spirit; that it is just and 
merciful to keep the purchase of the blood .of Christ 
in slavery! You are a Professor of Religion ; you 
believe that every man is accountable to God, and 
that all mankind must stand befure the judgment seat 
af Christ, to give an account for the deeds done in 
‘he body s—can you answer for the consequences of 
slavery? Alas! is there no contradiction in this pro- 
rogsion ? Can reason and conscience reconcile such 
a scheme? You are a professor of religion ; you be- 
lieve that love to God and all mankind is the true 
spirit of Christianity; that this commandment have we 
from him; that he who loveth God, love his brother 
also; and that to detain your fellow-creatures in sla- 
very, is the most excelient way to shew your love 
to them? Is it love to litile children to keep them 
in ignorance and nakeduess, to grow up like the 
svild ass’ colt, while you are forcing their parepts to 
jabour for you and your’s? Is it kindness to women 
that induces you to trample upon virgin modesty, 
and all the maternal affections? Is it your love to 

It is of no importance by what means the Slave 
was acquired; whether by our own robbery, purchase 
from the Thicf, donation from the primary kidnapper 
or from him to whom he was transferred, or by be- 
guest; the guilt is identical : if the rational creature, 
« Slave be found in our hand; we are involved in 
all the criminality of man-stealing, and shall not ¢s- 
cape the retribution of God, when in rightcousncsss 
the Son of Man shall judge the world. 


Vil DEL(NEATED. 79 i 


Was | the American Black-man which gives rise to those } 
RE institutions which consign him to eternal servitude ? | 
hil You are a Minister of the Gospel; you preach de- 
e) liverance to the captives ; Peace and sulyation to g “| 
Ha fallen world through Jesus Christ; you denounce the ay 
vi wrath of God which is revealed from heaven against 
all ungodliness and unrightcousness of men who hold \| 
the truth in unrighteousness ; and yet you hold your 
fellow-creatures in slavery? Zhou that condcemnest 
others and dost the same thing thyself, thinkest thou i 
that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? You j 
are a Minister of the Gospel! you are chraged to 
recommend the religion of the meck and iowly Jesus, , 
both by precept and example—does slavery yive man- 
kind the highest idea of the exceiluncy of religion ? + 
Ah! where is glorying now 2 What advantage [a 
hath the Christian Slave-holder over the Scepuc Pier 
losopher, the Jew, the Turk, or the Pagan? Whae * 
reward have ye ? whet do ye more than others? do ~ 
“ot even the Publicans, all the nations, the seme 2 i 
Slavery is the esurce’ of ail kinds of injustice s for Tj 
it is incompatiite with equity and civil rights. and is Ae 
the greatest of all tyrannies. The monarchies and are uit 
istocracics which have been so often decried by pol- wt 
iticians, as oppressive and violent, are independence, — at 
in comparison of that bondage, in which the Ameri- Ly 
can Black-man is kept. It exterminates the rights of Bh 
Women and children; for it is a mere state of bar- if | 
barism, in which neither the delicacy and chastity of aie 
sex, nor the debility and ignorance of children, are 
regarded. All the physical and commercial distincti- 
ons of labour and property are destroyed by it; for a 
slavery is a monopoly, which takes from another cae Wa 
What one has no right to claim, and witholds that unt 
which belongs to him.” * 


>= 


4 
. ; 5 
* Sneckin, a 


je a en ee 


SLAVERY 


What conformity with the moral code, does 
a Flesh-dealer exhibit 2 Thou shalt not kill: 
slavery in its most benign form, is slow-paced 
murder. Thou shalt not steal : this law, in the 
comprehension of the Israelites, solely prohi-, 
bits man-theft, detaining persons in perpetual 
bondage. Thou shalt not bear Salse witness a- 
gainst thy neighbour : no man can possess a 
slave, until he has virtually sworn, that men, 
women and children are brutes. Thou shalt 
not covet thy neighbour's house. thon shalt not 
covet thy neighbour’s wife. nor his man-servant, 
nor his maid-servant, nor his ox. nor his ass, 
nor any thing which is thy neighbour's ;* the 
Slave-holder not only sinfully desires, but act- 
ually steals them, with his neighbour also ; 
thus consummating his guilt by the most dar- 
ing rebellion and transcendent depravity. 

Every diciate of God’s word is flagrantly 
disobeyed ; for reciprocal equity is banished, 
as soon as slavery appears. Thou shalt not de- 
fraud thy neighbour, nor rob him: this uncea- 
sing cheating and robbery commence when 
‘he child first breathes, and ends only at his 
death.+ Thou shalt not oppress kim who is 
poor and needy, lest he cry against thee unto 
the Lord, and it be a sin unto thee ; is stealing 
a man, and giving him no necessaries, oppres- 
sion ?2{ Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor 


*® Exodue 20. 13—17. + Leviticus 19. 13. 
t Deuteronomy 24. 14, 15. 


LeESINEATELD. 3S aE 


vppress him; they kidnap the Stranger, te 9.) fy 
fi chain him in endless vexations and calamities. § H 
4 | Behold, the hire of the labourers who have rea- ih 
| ped down your fields, which 1s of you kept back re 
| Of fraud. crieth: and the cries of them who | 
have reaped are entered into the ears of the ‘el 
| Lord of Sabaoth + the Slave-Tyrant’s reapers “4 
/|) are never paid.* Ye shall not afflict any wid- i 
|| ow or fatherless + the incessantly «fictive exe 

ie perience of coloured females and orphans, nei- 
ther eloquence can display, nor imagination 
‘/2 |) comprehend.+ JZ will come near to you to judg. ia 

i |) ment; and TI will be a swift witness against ; 

|| false-swearers, and against those who oppress 
Nl the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the 
i fatherless, and who turn aside the stranger” 
from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord 
of fosts; with this menace, the Slave-holder, | 
according to his morality, has no connection ; TE 
_. fora slave is not a hireling, and being a brute, : 


can neither be a widow nor fatherless, and he eit 
cannot be a stranger turned aside from his itt 

_ tights, he never possessed one, and he was born he 
on the plantation : but the Man. Thief may re- Pi 

| collect, that his fulse-swearing affords him the ‘| 


only basis for these excuses.|| Jn the midst of it 
thee, have they dealt by oppression wiih the | 
stranger: is it oppression or Christianity, to 
kidnap men, and ceaselessly torment them, # | 
! 
| 


i) 
§ Exodus 22. 21. * James 5. 4, F 4 | 
t Exodus 22, 22, || Malachi 3. 5. ay 


————— 


SS Pe Gre 
Ai Dak A RE RPE ar ctr ad 


ne . 
La ceo 


ee me ES Mie me 


8. SLAVBRE 


until they die.q Rob not the poor, because hie 
:s poor ; nor oppress the afflicted in the gate ; 
for the Lord will plead their cause, and spot 
the soul of those who spoiled them: are slaves 
rich 2? is not oppression daily added to their 
distresses ? has a Slave-holder the fear of God 
before his eyes ? does he anticipate remunera- 
tion, with the measure that he meted misery ?* 
Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy 
burdens, let the oppressed go free, take away 
the yoke: if the Lord had commanded Filesh- 
Merchants to act precisely contrary, how ex- 
actly would they have complied ! They bind 
the bands of wickedness they aggravate the 
heavy burdens, they incarcerate the oppressed, 
they increase every yoke, they starve the hun- 
gry, they banish the poor, they pillage the na- 
ked, they despise their brethren, they contemn 
the African, they converse in lies, and they 
multiply the afflictions of the wretched. Yet 
they have the impudent hypocrisy to pretend 
that they are Messias’ Disciples! $ 22. 
q Ezekiel 22.7 ® Proverbs 22. 22, 23. 
¢ Isaiah 58. 6, 7, 9, 10. 


22. But the hiring of slaves involves the sin of 
stealing them, as it is an encouragement for the kid- 
napper to repeat his crime : and the payment of the 

_ Labourer as well as the Master will not exonerate 
any man from a participation in the guilt. He aids 
the Man-thief ; tor he snpports another who defrauds 
his neighbour. who robs him ‘of his wages, and who 

thereby perpetuates his oppressions. 


Sere a tat 


Se 


Se a 
a = = ee a 
eee ——— = 
SS eset — eee ee Sas 
eee Sea 


oy 
—— = ———— 


1 When he sees a thicf, then he consents 


‘own theft, he unites with a Man-Merchan 


DELINEATEG. 


From the dawning of life wutii aged decre- 
itude, barbarity, and Injustice, are the Siave’s 
uniiorm portion ; bis existence is abbreviated, 
and dissolution is his only comfort. His ter. 
restrial pilgrimage is toil and pain ; his corse 
is interred without sympathy ; no Christian 
recollections mingie around the grave which 
entombs the sleeping dust; he lived in scorn, 
his death excites no regret but the loss of gain, 
and he is deposited in oblivion, until the mor. 
ning of the resurrection. 23, 

The Renter cf Slaves is generally more 
severe €ven than the Kidnapper himself: for the latter 
shcws them, the kindness which is indispensable to 
promote his interest, and thus in some measure and- 
at certain intervals adinits one cheering ray into the 
gloom : but the flirer’s sole study is to zscertain by 
what process he can drive the poor creatures so as 
‘9 procure from them, during the period of posses 
sion, for their death he is not responsible, the utmost 
quin‘um of labour, at the least practicable expence. 
Although he retains no slaves as the produce of his 


t, Days Hine 
for his iniquity, and Joins to defraud the poor of his 


rigid and 


| Tecompeuse, and to augment the agonies of the miser- 
| able. Some other cause, and not religion or conscience 


hinders him from Ni gro-stealing ; and he who rents 
‘slave, is partaker of his crime who stole him, and 
can inake no juster pretensions to the character of a 
Christian than the Kidnafiper himself: fe: he hates 
"struction, and casts the words of God bchind him i 

i vith him ; 


he gives his mouth to evil, and his tongue frames 


_ teceitt «Therefore he is a wicked sinner. 


t Psalm 50. 17—19. 


°3. Z'o phe law and to the testimony : if they . 


85 


: awe 
‘= OE a ee Sa 
rer 


tail 


84 SLAVERY 


Notwithstanding all the political evils in oy 
country combined are trifling, when contrasted 
with the social mischief which slavery dif- 
fuses ; and although its compound iniquity 
far exceeds any other sin against God and 
our neighbour that we can possibly practise ; 
for it is a most audacious rebellion and false- 
hood against Jchovah ; it is impious disobe- 
dience to the Saviour, and it is cruelty, pol- 


— 
sfieak not according to this word, it is because they 


have no light in them. 
Isaiah 5. 20, 23- 

Isaiah 5. 8. Ezc kic! 22. 

Jsaiah 59. 3, 4, 6, 75 8, 


feniah) te 4. 4. Isaiah 10)),)2. 
12, 18. Jeremiah 22. 13.¢ 17. 
18, 14, 15. Luke 11. 46, 52. 
Joc] 3. 6—8 Jeremiah 5. 26, 27. Isaiah 56. 11. 

Feremiah 5. 60) Slo 5 tsaiah 29. 15. Amos 1. 6, 
J—11. and 2, 6) 75 12- and 4. 1-5, 12. and 8 4—6. 

Zechariah 7. 8; 10. and 8. 16, 17- Jeremiah 7. 4—6, 

g—il. Jeremiah 6. 13—15. Ezekiel 22. 235--Sl. 
Isaiah 1, 11, 12—20, 25, 28. 

The delineation of Jewish Man-stealers, 2500 years 
since, is a most graphical portraiture of Christian 
Negro«Pedlars ! and it might be presumed, that these 
prophetical narrations of the iniquity which existed 
among the children of Israel, with the denunciations | 
that accompany them, were recorded for imitation 
and an encouragement to duty, rather than for admo- 
nition and an impediment to crime. 

Tie serious Inquirer for ¢ruth, ought to peruse 
most attenuvely every Scripture which is alluded to f 
or cited. Scott, in his Commentary, boldly affirms, 
lucidly explains, and irrefragably demonstrates our 
doctrine. nee t 
+ This single text might convince any Christian 
of the iniquity of Slave-holding. - Garretson: ! 


Sen eatar 


ws 
ee Nishi apes Aa 


ee 


Se ca a ae a 


a ee ne ee 


—_= 


— 


= 
= 


neeaipineninntnitinic 


— 


—— 


pn a rn 


DELINEATED. ir BF 


‘ution, anc improbity towards man; yet 
Preachers, Church-Officers and Christian Pro- 
fessors either participate in these enormities, 
or palliate them to disguise their horrors, or 
by their silence connive at the perpetrators, and 
by acknowledging thern as Messias’ disciples, 
sanction their ungodly transactions. 

Many transgressions incompatible with 
the dicta of the Boor, may be upbraided with 
all apostolic fervor: but if a Preacher desirous 
that he may be pure from the blood of all men, 
shuns not to declare the whole counsel of God ; 
introduces .Negro-stealing, within the walls of 
the temple ; the reproaches, the contempt, the 
hatred,the persecution and the menaces which 
overwhelm him, evince that Siavery isa Le. 
gion of Devils. O Jesus, Son of the most High 
Go’, send them into the swine ! 

It is impossible to amalgamate a system 
which boldly aims to overthrow the jurisdic. 
tion of Heaven, with due submission to Jehe. 
vah’s authority, or to prove him who joins 
in such audacity, the humble docile follower 


of the Lamb ;—much less can the quintes- 
sence of cruelty be combined with the bene- 


ficence of the Book, or a man void of all 
sensibility be animated with Apostolic love ; 
equally inefficient would be every attempt, te 


connect the perennial impudent falsehoods of 


Slavery, with the unimpeachable uniform vera- 
city of divine Revelation, or to demonstrate 


that an unvarying Falsifier is an acceptable 
H 


ia 
y 4 


SLAVEAE 


co 
©) 


Disciple of the heart-searching God, wiv de. 
sires truth in the inward parts ;—and not less 
preposterous would be the endeavour, to 
cement the continual unrightcous impositions 
of Man-stealing with the constant unbounded §) 
rectitude of heart, lip, and life, of body, soul, 
and spirit, which the Gospel demands, or to 
evince that the same mind is in him which 
was also in Christ Jesus, and that Paul’s in. 
tegrity directed the malign proceedings of an 
émpenitent, ceaseless, cruel Thief! 

That Man-stealers can possibly dectare be- 
fore the Church, that they believe the Presby- 
terian Confession of Faith, and the Methodist 
Dicipline ; that they can venture to preach 
concerning justice, mercy, and pardon upon 
evangelical principles ; that they can unblush- 
ingly presume to serve at the Table of the 
Lord; or that they can calmly seat them. 
selves around the sacred board—is a manifest]. 
demonstration of that obduracy of heart, which 
gin naturally engenders, and of that blindness} 
of vision, which nothing but the Holy Spirit’s 
energy can practicably remove. 

Our life past may suffice us to have wrought 
the will of the Gentiles: now it is high tune 
to awake out of sicep, to discard this iniquity, 
to repent, and to reform this atrocity 5 or we 
may fearfully anticipate that, He who holdetht 
the seven stars in his right hand, who walkethi, 
in the midst of the seven golden, candlesticks 
will come unto us quickly, and will removed iy 


} tt : ” 
iit | sELINEALED. Sy : 
if i 
| 


tur candlestivic out of his place, except we re- : 
| pent; that he will lay his ax unto the root 
| of the tree, hew it down, and cast it into the 
fires and that He whose fun is in his hand, 
| nil thoroughly purge his floor and gather 
‘his wheat into ‘the garner; but he oH durn V 
(|), ap the chaff with 1 unquenchable Sire. ‘ 
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do 
/ | wen gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? : 
|| Even so every good tree bringeth forth good 
frueé; but a corrupt tree bringreth forth evil ho 
futt. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, ‘oe 
wither can a corrupt tree bring forth good | 
ruit. Lvery tree that bringeth not forth i 
ruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 
Vherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 
The fruit is a destruction of every devotional 
emper, the trec is daring impiety : the trec 
3 incessant cruelty, the fruit ts unparalleled 
nsensibility to human wo; the tree is in- BA) 
| ariable deception, the fruit is unintermitted ni 
} | ilsehood ; and the fruits are every diversi- 
| el unrighteousness, the tree is uninterrupted 


| ajustice: therefore, as all the fruits are atro- ey 
‘iously and detestably corrupt, the tree itself ine! 
lust ‘be incorrigibly rotten. ni 


| As no participant in this complicated enor- | 
sey can possibly be innocent of the guilt Ht 
|; “hich it comprises; every Slave-holding Pro- nt | 

vssor, is either so wretchedly besotted by 
de influence of sin as to be wilfully ignorant of Pia! 
- te true nature and requisitions of the Gospel, - 


Remy 


fi = ea a a a ab 
{ ig =. Be 
‘| %¢ 
VW | 38 SEAVERY DELINEATED. 
ie or he has assumed a profession of Christianity 
i as a cloak for his malignant and ungodly con- 
‘ | 
ithe duct; hence, whether he be perversely de- 
Pts} . . . 
jut juded, or a contumacious deceiver, unless 
ii he manifest a sincere contrition, by immediate- 


bination of impiety, barbarism, falsehood and 
dishonesty, he ought de facto, to be excom- 
municated from the Church of God. 


ly desisting from all concern with a com- 
‘ 


a Se ee 


— 
a Seine 


4 
ian 
rote 
ae ba 
2 Fist 
'¢ 
Hie 
1 9s? f 
5 any 
ii] : 
Aa 
ts ab 
Tie tee 
fit 
eh 
' $ 
mith 
ah 
hay 
ap es . 
+e % 
41 | f 
ty Saul 
, Bis} 
ale 


43 —o:@: 
ed SLAVERY INCOMPATIBL® WITH THE GOSrEL, 
| 
ait SLAVERY is adverse to all the princtples 
| and requisitions which the Scriptures reveal. 
The purchase, or sale, or vassalage, or in- 
voluntary hire of men or women destroys the 
I’ tights which are granted to the human family 
by the God of Nature ; extinguishes all capz- 
«city for the fulfilment of terrestrial duties and 
a compliance with divine injunctions ; nulit- 
fes the evangelic law of love and equity, 
"and is unequivocally denounced by the Holy 
Bible, as the highest degree of criminality 
connected with this temporal state of pro- 
® bation. 


“The holder of Sleyves supposes, that no other 
i rights belong to them than those of natural life, with 
-) the food aud raiment necessary to their subsistence.. 
But scripture and reason concur in teaching us that 
| various other rights belong to them. It cannot be: 
"dented that the labour of a grewa person under a ¥ 
proper direction, is of far more value than so much 
food and raiment as are necessary to his subsistence ;: 
and that he is, therefure, entitled, to moce than Uicse 
as bis wages. Whoever denies him this right violates 
the law aud exposes himsclf to the curse of Gort. 
| Musters, give unto your scrvaics tliat which io just 
¢ and equal: knowing that ye a'so have « Alastir ie 
4 Acaven.* ‘Che children of a slave have the’saine right 
= 


* Coleesianve 4. 1, 


e- 
of 


90 SLAVERY 


to receive a religious education from him, which the 
children of any other person have to reccive that 
benefit from their parent, who is bound to bring them 
upft in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.t Es 
very person as a rational creature, has a right to 
be excmpted from the ordinary engagements of his 
secular business, during the time which he ought to 
employ in the public and private excrcises of God’s 
worship. When mastcr pretends to have the power 
of keeping one whem he calls his slave from a due 
attendance on God in his ordinances, he blasphemously 
assumes the power of robbing God. He is chargeable 
with the crime of Pharoah, in refusing to let Israel 
«go, and serve the Lord. Negros have the same right 
svith others, to be freed from restraints that are un- 
necessary to any good end, or in matters of mere 
undifference, in which the word of God has left men 
iree. Such privileges may be sometimes allowed to 
slaves by way of special indulgence ; but their claim 
to them as thcir just right, is not admitted by the 
system of slavery which now exists; and the enjoy- 
nent of some of them is evidently incompatible with 
the system.} 

“ All things whatsoever ye cvould that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them. lt is a golden 
rule which ought to be constantly in the minds of 
all men; it recommends itself to every man’s reason 
and conscience, as completely wise and good. Every 
yne implicitly appeals to it as worthy of the highest 
regard, when his own rights are violated by his neigh- 
pour; nor must the slave-merchants be considered as 
snsensible to the excellence of this morat precept, 
when their own persons, families or interests are con- 
cerned. Nay, would not the indignation and anguish 
of the Slave-Merchant himself be almost inexpressiblc, 
were his affectionate wife and dutiful children stolen 
——_ 

+ Ephesians 6. 4 

4 Brown's Dictionary of the Holy Bibte, 


- 


Se beer nae 


ANTI-CHRISTIAN. 9! 


| fram his bosom, and sold as slaves for the remainder 
: of their lives; and surely if any man upon carth 
; deserves to be so treated, it must be who has made 
it his business to ¢rade in the fiersons of men,* and 
_ to enslave his innocent fellow-creatures. But if the 
' Sovereign Lord of all regard the cry of the prisoner, 
the voice of the captive, the lamentation of human 
misery; if he avenge the blood of his servants so 
iia . cruelly tortured and murdered, by the hard-hearted 
task-masters appointed overthem; and if he say, G 
li earth, cover not thou their blood.+ 
“ The unreasonableness of perpetual unconditional 
slavery may easily be inferred from the righteous and 
benevolent doctrines and duties taught in the New 
id f Testament. It is contrary to that excclient precept 
+} Jaid down by the divine Author of the Christian in- 
stitution, Whatsoever ye would that men should do 
_ unto you, do ye even so to them. A precept so finely 
| calculated to teach the duties of justice, to enforce 
| their obligation and induce the mind to obedience, 
\ + that nothing can excel it No man, when he views 
> the hardships, the sufferings, the excessive labours, 
| t the unreasonable chastisements, the separation between 
| husbands and wives, between parents and childrea, 
»; can say, Were I in their place, I should be contented > 
| ’ Iso far approve this usage, as to belicve the law 
_ | that subjects me to it, to be perfcctly right: that 
~ [and my posterity should be denied the protection 
{of law, and be exposed to suffer allihese calamities; 
though I never forfeited my freedom, nor merited 
such treatment, more than others. No; there is an 
honest Something in our breasts which bears testimony 
against this as unreasonable and wicked. I find it 
in my own breast, through all the changes of time, 
the influence of custe:n, the arts of sophistry, and the | 
fascination of interest. It is a law of my nature; a 
ae 
* Ezekiel 27. 15. 
+ Wood’s Dictioncry of the Holy Bib!e. 


at 
ti 
rae 
saa 
Ha Ua | 
Wal 
ah 


i 
é 
i 
4 


a a are 


Sota ae 


SLAVERY 


law of move ancient date than any act of parliament, 
and which no legislature can ever repeal. It is a 
law inscribed on every human heart; and may there 
be seen in legible characters, unless it is blotted by 
vice, or the eye of the mind blinded by interest Should 
1 do any thing to countenance this evil, I should fight 
against my own heart; should I not use my influence to 
annihilate it, my own conscience would condemn me.” 

“ Slavery naturally tends to destroy all sense of 
justice and equity. It puffs up the mind with pride; 
teaches youth a habit of looking down upon their 
fellow creatures with contempt, esteeming them &s 
Dogs or Devils, and imagining themsclves beings of 
superior dignity and importance, to whom ail ave in- 
debted. nis banishes the idea, an\ unquatifies the 
mind ‘for the practice of common justice. If T have 
all my days, been accustomed to live at the expence 
of a black man, without making him any compensa- 
tlon, or considering myself at all in his debt, 1 can- 
pot think it any great crime to live at the expence 
of a white man. If Ireb a black man without guili, 
1 shall contract no great guilt by robbing a white 
nan. If I have been accustomed to think a bleck 
snan was mace for mic, i may easily take it into my 
head io think so of a white man. If I have no sense 
of obiigation to do justuce toa black man, i can have 
little to do justice to a white man. In this case, the 
tinge of our skins, or the place of ours nativity, can 
make but little difference. If I am in principle a 
{friend to slavery, I cannot, to be consistent, think it” 
any c-ime to rob my country of its property and free- 
dom, whenever my iutcrest calls, and | find it in 
way power. If 1 make any diffevence here, it must 


we owing to a vicious education, the force of preju 


dice, or pride of heart. If io principle a friend to 
slavery 1 camot feel myscif obliged to pay tae debt 
due to my acightour. If 1 can wrong him of all he 
possessions, and ayaid the law, all is Weals 


o Rice, 


Se ~ Seer eee 


} | (& ligion, is almost universally neglected. Hence, espe- 
aed \f cially’ where they are numerous, they are grossly 
Wilt {8 ignorant of religion and openly immoral in their prac- 
Wl) 3 tice. lus a race of heathens or infidels is propa- 
if a gated ; whose example and conversation must be an 
Ws infectious and destructive plague to the rest of the 
‘| 2% inhabitants of the land. Nor is there any reasonable 
4 j| (iP prospect of the reformation of Negies in a state cr 
} U— slavery ; for the masters are generally possessed with 
tn) fon | 
ny. i i * | Peter 2.17%. 1 Thessalonians 3. 12. 
wi: | 
Wes) 
bal | 
‘ | " 


ANTA-CHAISTIAN- 


“ The holding of Negros in perpetual slavery is 
inconsistent with the honour and brotherly love. whieh 
Christians acknowledge to be due to all men. Honour 
ail mene The Lord make you to increase and ajound Hy 
in love to one another and to all men.* We are to 
love and honour all men as partakers of the same 
human nature, as descended from the same original 
parent. God hath made of one blood all nations, and 
jath determined the bounds of their habitations. Also 
as having immortal souls capable of saving grace, ; 
capable of being members of Christ and temples of 
the Holy Ghost. But the slavery, in which the negros 
are now detained, indicates hatred and contempt, in- - | 
stead of honour and love; while it is invidiously ree 
stricted to those of aceitain country and complexion ; 
it deprives them of several of the common rights of 
man; and exhibits them to be bought and sold like 
beasts. 

“ The evil consequences which have constantly at- 
tended the slavery of Negros, are sufficient to make 
every Christian abhor it. It is shocking to relate the ats 
many instances, disgraceful to human nature, of the a 
dreadful punishment inflicted on these miserable cap- 
tives for slight offences, of the excessive labour to 
which they are compelled, of the scanty and unwhole- 
some allotment that is given them of the necessaries 
of life, and of other sorts of crucl treatment. The 
education of slaves in the principles of our holy Re- 


i iv Ca Seas a A nr RO Cee tat ltl 4 bie 
a Wal 
{ 
ti | tH 
{3 | $4 SLAVERY | \ 
ae ir 
i i a notion, that Negros are unteachable, and that Lnow- #gHf 
i} A ledge would render them more intractable ; and the | ; 
ii} negros are naturally prejudiced against the instructions f } 
iH, i of their oppressors.’’* ‘ | 
iy “ Liberty conducts to every thing thatis sublime fii) 
Ve in genius and virtue, while slavery extinguishes all. (i) 
Ly | What sentiments of dignity or of respect, can thosc fii), 
Th mortals have for themsclyes, who are considered as | 
: éattle, and who are often staked, by their masters, at | 
it cards or billiards, against barrels of rice or other mer- at 
be chandize. What can individuals perform when de- Fy 


——— 


ee Oe a 


Ne 
ue iV 
re + 


ae 


—-> 
oils 


os 


ne a aterm tem —— aa 


ee 


ee A ee a 
eres 


sre a 


_ Or by the sacred organs of his word, 


graded below the condition of brutes, overwrought, 
covered with rags, famished by hunger, and for the 
slightest fault torn by the bloody whip of an Oversecr?! 
Slavery supposes all the crimes of tyranny, and com. 
monly engenders all its vices ; virtue can hardly thrive 
among men who have no consideration, who are 
soured by misfortune, dragged into corruption by the 
example of crimes, driven from all honourable or sup- 
portable ranks in society, deprived of religious and 
moral instruction, placed in a situation where it is 
impossible to acquire knowledge, or struggling against 
obstacles which oppose the developement of their 
faculties. In their place, perhaps, we should have 
been less virtuous, than the virtuous among them, and 
more yicious than their worst characters; for their 
vices are the work of the nations called Christian.”} 


“« Where is the charter found to sanctify 
Despotic, base, anqualified controul, 
O’er strength and will, by man enthroned o’er Man: 
In Revelation’s code you find it not, 
Nor in Creation’s multifarious laws. 
The will of Heaven, when unreveal’d by Christ, 


Is sought and found in the primeval light, 
Which Nature sheds through her expanded spheres. 
But when with Gospel-day this light combines, 


——=s 


* Brown's Dictionary of the Bible. + Gregoire. 


co see ee — 


=: Se _ 
* 


<j 


ee oe seme 


ANTI-CHRISTIAY, 56° 


The Foor who doubts, who asks for clearer proof, 
Must hood-wink’d be indeed, and darkness love. 
That such resistless evidence obtains, 

To evince Demoniac Slavery’s turpitude, 

With all the powers of brightest Truth appears, 
To the impartial mind that views cach source, 
Whence the full streams of testimony flow. 

Fach text of sacred Writ enjoining love, 
Affection, Justice, mercy, meekness, peace ; 

And piety establishes this truth, 


Hi That Slavery contravenes the law of God !* 


Revealed religion is predicated upon the na. 


tural equality, the individual responsibility, 
® the reciprocal duties of the human family, and 


the paramount claims of the most high God to 


4® the services, and the obedience of all his crea- 


H tures. Slavery does not merely dim:nish the 


energy, and mitigate the obligation of the sac- 


Bred scriptures, butit totally nullifies all the 
| -f fundamental principles of Christianity. 


Paul assured the Areopagites, that God 


‘fe made of ane flesh, all nations of men.t The 


dissimilarity of the rational species, upon the 


‘pretext of colour, is consequently a chimera; 
® and if the members of the various countries of 


the globe are derived from a different origin, 
they cannot be bound by the same laws as our- 


# selves. This aggravates the iniquity of Slave- 
® holding to an inconceivable degree, because it 
# pre-supposes the right to grasp every reasona- 


ble creature who bears not our own external 


* Daniel Bryan. 
$ Acts 17. 2426. 


Rei ia 
44, See = —— : 
my es 
| 56 grAVERT 
HP conformation, or whose features differ : but 
if t the same principles in re-action would justify 
Hi f every country in enslaving its neighbours, and 
Hi i every individual, who could effect it, in steal- 
Hi i ing his inferior or dependent. 
+f i} « A slave is a free moral agent Icgally deprivec 


ih of free agency, and obliged to act according to the 
will of another free agent of the same specics; and 
VY yet he is accountable to his Creator for the use 
ae “hich he makes of his own free agency. When 2 
i man, though he can exist independent of another, 


iH cannot act independent of him, his agency must de- 
, Le pend upon the will of that other ; and therefore he 


is deprived of his own free agency : and yet, as a frec 
agent, he is accountable to his Maker for all the deeds 
done inthe body. This comes to pass through a great 
omission and inconsistency in the legislature. They 
ought farther to have enacted, in order to have been 
consistent, that the slave should not have been ace 
countable for any of his actions ; but that his master 
should have answered for him in all things, here and fi 
hereafter. That a slave has the capacities of afree fie 
moral agent will be allowed by all. That he is de- 
prived of the exercise of these powers, e¢idently ap- Wh 
ot 4 pears from his situation. That he is accountable 
} to his Maker for his conduct, will be allowed by those, 
1 i, who do not believe that human legislatures arc omni- BB 
i fi : poient, and can free men from this allegiance and (igi) ) 
q 


ee 


Se erent ho 


iE cant 


ee ee) 
2 a 
Ve So Pe 


ponerse ~ na 


b subjection to the King of Heaven.”% 

“4 Slavery is the legitimate offspring, and the 

; 4 t frequent cause ofa rejection of the BOOK. 

ly Christian Instructors may justly be alarmed ; 

{ : bik _ they cannot be silent upon man-stealing, much 
less excuse, defend, or engage in it, without a 


= 


§ Rice. 


“32 
SS sey 
= ee 


<— 


TRALEE TE Be PS 
= — +. = ee 7 . 
ke Ae reer Te. 


ANTI-CHRISTIAN, $F 


‘virtual admission that divine revelation is not 
our sole infallible directory. 24. 

Mien calumniate the coloured people, that 
they may claim a right to enslave them ; and 
for justification of their culpable conduct. ‘The 
accusers are both judges and executioners. 

“A thousand times have they tortured the sacred 
writings, to find an apology for slavery, although the 


 <criptures declare, that all are childrca of the same 
heavenly Father: all mortals are sprung frem the same 


| family ; religion admits of no distinction. In the church, 


‘i the poor man raises his humiliated form, and the rich 
& zegard him wiih respect ; $ there the auditors are re- 
p minded of their primitive equality, before a God who 
Wes no respectcr of fiersons ; and there the heavenly 
4B oracle proclaims, that we ought to @o to otters that 
me vhich we wish to be done to us. The christian re- 
& ligion alone places the weak under the protection of 
the strong ; and consoles the unhappy, whatever bo 


| Bcheir country, their colour or religion. The parable 


= of the Samaritan imprints on slave-holders the seal of 
(@ eorobation ; and is an aknthema against every person 
#} who excludes from the circle of his charity a single 
® individual of the human race.* History attests, that 
he friends of despotism and impiety are always the 
© icfenders of slavery and irreligton.’ ¢ 
Slavery extinguishes all the rights of man: 
‘irom his equal rank in creation, the slave is 
H 24. “ If the plague had rewards and pensions to be- 
pstow, it would find apologists ; but in defending the 
fF poor and the oppressed, as we must struggle against 
j power, riches and frenzy, we may expect nothing 
fut calumny, injurics and persecutions.” 
Frapiolosarpi. 
$ Paley. ® Luke 10. 25—87. + Gregoria. 


I 


——— 
= 


Se oe 


eect oe 


pei 


\ “parents, and asense of duty in children, are inscribe 


rogates the BOOK ? 


98 SLAVERT 


ignorniniousiy debased to a brute ; and tle 
immunities which naturally inhere to him, arc 
all stolen. The Thief becomes a despot, and 
the kidnapped immortal is buried in terrestrial 
vassalaze, without hope and without end. His 
life is at the disposal of a barbarian, who may 
render it as wretched as he will uncontrouled, 
or shorten its duration by every refinement of 
torture: of his freedom he is altogether clives. 
ted: and his !abour, his comforts, his children, 
and his all, are the property of the most guilty 
violator of the eighth commandment. What 
peculiarly daring efirontery do men display, 
when they assume the garb of religion, and 
deny its most obvious principles, its most.lum- 
jnous. prescriptions, and its most tremendous 
denunciations. Can he be a Christian who ab. 


7 


“ The principles of conjugal love and fidelity is j 


the breast of a virtuous pair, of natural affection ini 


there by the finger of God; they are the laws of heaven: 
but an enslaving law directly opposes them, and vil- 
tuaily forbids obedience. "Fhe relations of husband ant 
wile, of parent and child, are formed by divine av 
thority and founded on the laws of nature. But it 
in the power of acrucl master, and pf a needy cre 
ditor, to break those tender connections, and for eve 
‘to separate those dearest relatives. This is ever don 
at the call of interest or humour. The poor sufferer 
may expostulate; they may piead; may plead with 
tears; their hearts may bredk ; but all in vain. The 
‘laws of nature are violated, the tender ties are dis 
solved, a final separation takes place, and the :cuti¢: 
of these relations can no longer be performed, ns 


~~ eet een” 


ANTi-CHRISIIAS: #9 


sein Comforts enjoyed. Would these saves perform 
spe duties of husbands and wives, parents and children ; 
the law disabics them, it puts it altogether out of 
their power. In these cases, it is evident that the 
laws of nature, or the laws of man are wrong; and 
which, none is at @ loss to judge. The divine law 
says, whom God joins together, let no nian fut asunder. 
Toe law of man says to the master of the slave, though 
the divine law has joined them together, you may 
put them asunder when you please. ‘The divine law 
says, {rain ufi a ‘child in the way he should go; the 
law of man says, you shali not train up your child, | 
but as your master thinks proper, The divine law 
says, honour your father and mater, and obcy them 
in all things ; but the law of man says, honour and 
obey your master in ail things, and your parents just 
as (ar as le sail direct you. Should @ master com- 
mad his slave to steal, and he should presume to 
disobey, he is liable to suffer every extremity of punish- 
ment, short of death er amputation. from the hand 
of his master; atthe sametime he is liable to a punish- 
meut equally or more severe, if he obey. He is bound 
by law, to do that if his master pleases, for which 
the law condemns him to death. 

« A slave, being a free moral agent, and an ac- 
countable creature, is a subject capable of religion 
and morality; but deprived by law of the means of 
instrucuon in the doctrines and duties of morality, any 
further than his master pleases. It isin the power 
of the master to deprive him of all the means of re- 
ligious and moral instruction, either in private or in 
public. Masters actually exercise this power, and re- 
strain their slaves from the means of instruction, by 
the terror of the lash. Siaves have not opportuuity; 
at their own disposal, for instructing conversation ; it 
is put out of their power to learn to read ; and their 
masters restrain them-from othé¢r means of informa- 
tion Masters designedly keep their slaves in ignor- 
ance, lest they should become too knowing to answer 


nt aptamer 


——— 
Seman aE 


<—aeeapiarhnene ee 


oie~m— = 


oo A eB Se 


prota) SLAVERY 


their selfish purposes ; and too wise to rest easy in 
their degraded situation. In this case, the law operates 
so as to answer an end directly opposed to the proper 
end of all law. It is pointed against every thing dear 
to them; against the principal end of their existence. 
It supports in a land of religious liberty, the severest 
persecutions ; and may opcrate so as totally to rob 
multitudes of their religious privileges and the rights 
uf conscience. 

“© A slave is bound to spend his life in the service 
of another, to whom he owes nothing, is under no 
obligation; who is not legally bound to find him 
victuals, clothes, medicines, or any other means of 
preservation, support or comfort. A slave is bound 
to spend his life in the service of his master, and he 
is not indebted to his master, is under no obligations 
to him. How can he possibly be indebted to him, 
who deprives him of liberty, property, and every thing 
deat to a human creature? All he receives is the 
bare means of subsistence ; and this not bestowed un- 
til he has carned it; and then not in proportion to 
his labour; nor out of regard to him, but for selfish 
purposes. This bare support the master i3 not bound 
by law to give; but is left to be guided by his own 
interest or humour; and hence the poor slave often 
falls short of what js necessary for the comfortable 
support of the body. The master is the enemy of the 
slave ; he has made open war against him, and is daily 
carrying it on by unremitted efforts. Can any onc 
imagine, that the slave is indebted to his master, and 
bound to serve him? Whence can the obligation 
arise? What it is founded upon? What is my duty 
to an enemy, that is carrying on war against me? 
In some circumstances, it is the duty of the slave to 
serve ; but it is a duty he owes himself, and not his 
master. 

The master inflicts upon him, all the punishment 
the human body is capable of bearing ; and the law 
snpports him in it: if he does but spare his lifs and 


tr ; ANTL-CHTISTIAN. 101 


limbs, he dare not complain, none can hear and res 
lieve him, he has no redress under heaven. When 
we consider these things, it must appear unjust te 
the last degree, to force a fellow creature, into this 
wretched situation; aed confine him and his poste- ud 
rity in this bottomless gulf of wretchedness for ever. fea 
Where is the sympathy, where the tender feelings 

of humanity ? Where is the heart that melts not at ‘j 
this scene of wo? Who is not fired with indignation, 
to see such injustice and cruelty countenanced by 
civilized nations, and supported by the sanetion of 
the law ? * 

If holy resentment is excited at the support 
ff given to such criminality by national regulatt- 
| ¥} ons, whac Christian commiserates not those, 
| Gf who defend this villany, and who consent 
|W} with a Man-stealer, by acknowledging him an 
' DE acceptable belicver ; thus transforming the e- 
‘| §F ternal reprobation which God has afixed upon 
1) Gf slavery into a ratification of their, ungodliness. fA 
Are not these ecclesiastical Officers, blind SS sii 
if watchmen, shepherds who cannot understand, i 
4 Ub boking to their own way, every one for liis an 
|) UD gain from his own Necro quarter ?+ Did all | 


|) gB the Preachers faithfully delineate this iniquity, 


—— 


i i : hi 
“| 41 and the curse which attends it, slavery would a) 
|| Uf} immediately expire. . ‘ a 
ane As individuals, we are accountable to God } 
it for all our actions ; but by denying to our fel- | 
iat low creatures, the use of their reason, the ace ft 
| quisition of knowledge, and the exercise of th 
ih their powers, we interpose a claim between | 
| © Rice. + Isaiah 56. 10. 44. H 
i ; = : ; ih 
eee! } | be} 
i il 
iM 
Wai), 
at | 


103 SLAVERY 


Fla ot 
Coa 


aS 


the Creator and man, equally insulting to Je- 
hovah, ‘disgraceful to the church, and injuri- 


eon ae 


i 

a ous to our neighbour. By refusing him re- 
1b quisite instruction, we extinguish his capacity, 
sf { and by chaining his will, we preclude his obe- 
Nish dience to the divine commands. Ere long 


. ¢ternity opens to our incredulous eyes; the 
Lord of the servants cometh, and reckoneth 

with them; the Kidnapper and his Slave, the 

Be Legislator and the Preacher stand before the 
vighteous Judge. ‘The Man-stealer pleads tm- | 
terest as his apology : the Property excuses He 
imself upon the impracticability of fulfilling Fy 
Jiis duties : and the Legislator urges the exi- 

xcency of the case, and -the bad policy of e- 

“mancipation.¥he Minister is addressed : didst 

if thou inculcate, that the Slave Merchant was 

i i | the greatest criminal in society ? didst thou 

i 


a re 


Sear 


—— 


re 
eae ares 


‘| | -enjoin the exhibition of love, and justice, and 9a 
mercy ? didst thou preach deliverance to the Tig 


ee 


i h <aptive ? didst thou warn the Lawgiver of his 
1 _ usurpation, in enacting laws subversive of my 
ih 4 supremacy, contradictory to my word, dero- 
Oak ig gatory to thy nature, and condemned by thy 
ii # conscience ? No, Lord—Z was afraid, and 
ig went and hid thy talent in the earth. ‘Yhou 
ti al Christian and a Slave-holder! thy portion is 
Ft with thieves. Thou a man and not obey my 


! commands ! but thou didst not know thy Lord's 
i will, thou shalt be beaten with few stripes. 
Thou a Legislator, and overturn the law of 


God! Thou didst love and make a lie : drow? 1 


ANTI-CHRISTIAN. Ws 


| him and his policy in everlasting fire. Thou 
a Watchman, and not admonish them: cast 
ye the unprofitable servants into outer darkness. ‘4 
Gop BE MERCIFUL TO WS SINNERS! m4 

Slave-holders plead that they are Christians. ¥ 
In what principles does Christianity consist 2 
Buying souls, kidnapping children, tormenting 
women, brutalizing men, robbing the labour- 
_) er, and oppressing the innocent captive ; hen 
i) are they indeed Saints ! 
| But the Book unequivocally declares, that 
oa) oq — to enslave a man is the highest kind of theft ; 
we | to purloin children is the compound of all rob- 
i Hi) bery, as it steals a Father’s joy, a Mother’s 

| i, tenderness, « Brother’s delight, and a Sister’s iis 
i affection ; to excruciate a female by stripes or ih 
| ll by violation, is the heighth of barbarity ; to 
divest man of his rational characteristics is the 
most diabolicai impiety ; to defraud the friend- i 
less and overpowered dependent of his just . 
recompense, is the very mass of all injustice ; i 
to destroy feminine modesty is the source ot 
all other crimes personal and relative ; to pro- 
fane the sabbath absolutely disavows. the au- oy 
thority of God, and salvation by Christ Jesus ; 
and to prolong human existence in agony, 
the mind bereft of all consolation and the bo- 
dy of needful support is a concatenation of 
crime indescribable. Can the perpetrators, the 
defenders, the compromisers, the participators, 
and the connivers, who by any mode protract 


— > 


~~ — a at 


i a Sina 


7 
LW All eee hie Meee re 


_ = 
ee ot Fa 


paseo 
= 


104 SLAVERY 


such inexpressible flugitiousness be Christ 
ians ? 25. 

The Boox condemns this turpitude as the 
most atrocious criminality: and no man can 
momentarily admit, that unerring rectkude 
sanctions a system of iniquity. Whether we 
advert to the motives, the objects, or the re- 
sults of slavery, it is totally incompatible with 
Christianity. 

Slave-holding is a substitution of Mammon 
for God. Avarice originated and perpetuates 
man-stealing. Wealth is the sole desire of 
every fcsh-merchant ; and all Vraders in the 
persons of me:i, exhibit conduct. which is as 
essentially different from the devotional, phi- 
lanthropic, and equitable demands of the gos- 
pel, as the purity of Paradise is dissimilar to 
the depravation of Pandemonium, 

Are any persons so lamei.tably blind, that 
they cannot discern the anti-christianity of 
robbing the rights of man, the impiety of 
turning the blind from the way, disobedience 
in rendering all sacred ordinances a nullity, 
cruelty in the diversified pain with which they 
have burdened their servants, and dishonesty 
in falsehood, fraud, and stealing, who should 


—— 


25. Sceptics, Infidels, aud Worldlings ridicule the 


‘endeavour to combine Slavery and Christianity ; and 


acknowledge that it is utterly impracticable, to com- 
pound Gospel Morality, Columbian Republicanism, 
Justice and Humanity, with the trafic in humas 
flesh, and blood, and souls. ; . rasa 


ANTI CURISTIAN. Piers 


sxpose their delusions, and rouse them from 
iheir stupor? The Minister of the Sanctuary.26. 
Persons through Satanic delusion, will hear 
the most solemn verities, unaffected. An Ex- 
positor of the scriptures may enforce justice 
and mercy ; but the Slave-holder avows, that 
he is a righteous man, for he only bought his 
Negro and kidnapped the children; he did not 
j\q sail to Africa and transport them: he alleges, 
a that he is merciful, for he bestows upon his 
JG slaves, meat once daily, his neighbours give 
them none. A’ Preacher should demonstrate, - 
that his pretended justice is a cheat ; his mer- 
cy Is Savageness ; and that he who turns away 
j§ dis ear from hearing the law. even his prayers 
ij are an abomination to the Lord. He regards in- 
iguity in his heart, the Lord will not hear him. 
Buc ifthe Putprt, the Trumpet gives an un- 
erréain sound, none can prepare himself for 
the battle. 
| «6 To pray and kidnap £ to commune and rob 
4) men’s all! to preach justice, and steal the la- 
Wy borer with his recompence! to recommend 
“i mercy to others, and exhibit cruclty in our 
i? own conduct! to explain religious duties, and - 


——= 

26. The clergy, by their vocation, are the messen= 
gers of truth ; they ought to watch society, to ex- 
pose its errors, and bring the wicked back to truth 
and virtue ; if their conduct be otherwise, the public 
sins will fall on their head. They know not the 
‘}M truth, or they dare not reveal it, and are therefore, 
i) partners in national crimes. Cugoano, 


eet 


ty. | 

mi 

4 it | . 

i) 4 F 

il {| 156 SLAVERY 
(; . 
rel 
y 


inculcate every social affections and instantly 
| exterminate them ! to expatiate upon bliss et- 
ernal, and preclude sinners from obtaining it! 
to unfold the wos of ‘Tophet, and not diag 


‘ \ ever impede the performance oi them: to pro 
uj)» pound the exaimple of Christ and his Apostles, 
Hh * and declare that a Slave-holder imitates them ! 
ii to enjoin an observance of the Lord’s day, and 
Ais \| drive the slaves from the temple of God ! to 


4 4 men from its fire ! are the most preposterous 
: i HY delusion, and the most consummate mock- 
fail cry. 27. 
| _ Slavery is a flagrant violation of every law 
21 of God, nature, and socicty It cannot be rece 
ii onciled with the gospel ; and he who ever acts 
iB in direct opposition to the Messias’ govern. fiji 
i Gs ment, and who indurates his soul against the § 
lid a! impressions of that Licur, which would con- 
‘) ay vict and regenerate him, cannot be a genuine 
Teh disciple of HIM, who when the hour was 


tut 
a i come, invoked his Father, Sanctify them 
fh through’ thy truth ; thy word is truth! 


Pe = 
Hl yy 27. These reficctions are calculated to disoblige those 
ve ae who are interested: but regardless of consequences, 
kW a without the least dislike to any man living, and act- 
4) hi uated only by a love to truth, and the advancement 
de iy of Christianity, I protest against such abuses. T have § 
( He. _ received no affront, conceived no disgust, I have jj 
i Sainte pleaded the example of others. I have soothed my- § 
auld self, I have endeavoured to reconcile my conscience, @ 
oY i but what is man firofited, if he shall gain the whol @ 
| a! ‘i world, and lose his own soul ? Simpson, 
i tind i ; 
ed 
eh 3 he | ‘ 
fy if 4 a 
AR Fa | . 
~ * 


+ ee cee 


CHAP Ti he. 


——=e ik 


Excuses ror SLAVERY EXAMINED. 


Tae whole defence of Slavery is comprizea 
ina plea of right or apology. Every argu- 
ment upon these principics is nugatory ; and 
many of them may be effectually retorted. 
They all may be reduced to these allegations. 

The antiquity and extensiveness of man- 


ants of Ham should be servants of servants ; 
Jewish example ; the silence of the New-Tes- 
tament upon slavery; the title acquired by 
purchase ; the injustice of depriving men of 
property without an equivalent ; the legal im- 
pediments to emancipation; the dangers at- 
tending a general liberation ; and the imprac- 
ticability of safely effecting a manumission. 
Ancient and universal practice justifies no 
transgression ; prophecy is neither the rule of 
duty nor a vindication of crime; Christ is our 
exemplar ; the Boox condemns involuntary 
servitude ; no claim to man as property is 
valid; men should resign their thefts, and 
make restitution ; all civil Jaws which annul 
the ordinances of God, are a non-entity ; the 
ath of duty is safety; and tyranny with avar- 
ice predominates ; therefore, no method is de- 
vised by which Columbian Slaves ! may en- 


joy the rights of man. : 


stealing ; the design of God that the descend. . 


v 


Ee EF i rant 


See ee eee 


fd on eee 


Se 


a 


308 EXCUSES: 


% Negros being descendants of Ham, some have 
thought their contemptuous treatment of them coun- 
tenanced by Noah's curse.* But this prophecy does 
not include ali Ham’s posterity, and will not serve 
as a warrant to enslave them: because it is not a rule 
for the direction of our practice; but the prediction 
of a future event. The greatest crimes have been 
foretold ; the treachery of Judas and the crucifixion 
of Christ; but the wickedness of committing these 
sins was not lessened. 

“ It is much insisted on that the Israelites held 
slaves, either bought or taken captive ; whom their 
masters kept. exchanged or disposed of, as their own 
goods! But the Jews where not allowed to hold any 
of their brethren in perpetual slavery ; but individuals 
only of heathen nations. The moral law of love to 
mankind was not less obligatory under the old Testa- 
ment dispensation, than it is under the New ;_ but 
God granted the members of the Jewish State a right 
to the perpetual service of those idolatrous individuals, 
whom they*should buy t But this will no more war- 
rant people of other states to hold their fellow-men 
in perpetual slavery, than the grant which God made 
the Israelites of the jewels of the Egyptians, or of 
the iands inhabited by the nations of Canaan, will 
authorize any people to take possession of the lands 
or wealth of their neighbours. God may give a posi- 
tive: command which is an exception from: the moral 
law with regard to human property or lite; but this 
is his prerogative ; and if Creatures pretend to do so, 
they impiously affect equality with God.” { 

“ The example of faithful Abraham,§ and the law 
of Moses, |j are adduced. It is argued, that since 
Abraham had servants born in his house and bought 
with money, they must have been servants for life, 

**® Genesis 9. 25. ¢ Levitious 25. 44—<46, 

$ Brown’s Dictionary of the-Haly Gible. - 

§ Genesis 17. \] Leviticus 29. 


set 


RACUSES: © 1Q9 


like Gur negros: and hence it is concluded, that it 
is lawful for us to purchase heathen servants, and ik 
they have children born in our houses, also to make 
them slaves. From the law of Moses, the advocates 
for perpetual slavery contend, that the Israelites were 
authorized to leave the children of theie servants, a3 
an inheritance to their own children for ever: ané 
hence, it is inferred, that we may leave the children 
of our slaves as an inheritance to our children for 
ever. If this was immoral in itself, a just God would 
never have given it the sanction of his authority ; and 
if lawful in itself, we may safely follow the example 
of Abraham, or act according to the law of Moses. 
Abraham was commanded to circumcise all who were 
‘arn in his house, or bought with mavcy : he obeyed 
ce command without delay, and actually circumcised 
every mele in bis family. This law of circumcision 
continued in force ; and by the law of Moses, it wae 
not repealed, but confirmed. Now, to the circumcised 
were committed the oracles of God; and circumcision 
was a token of that covenant, by which, among other 
things, the land of Canaan, and their various privileges 
in it) were promiscd to Abraham and his seed; to 
all‘ who were included in that covenant. But all were 
included, to whom circumcision, the token of the 
covenant, agreeably to God’s command, was adminis- 
ceved. By divine appointment, not only Abraham and 
his natural seed, but he who was bought with money 
of any stranger that was mot of his sced, was cir- 
cumcised. Since the seed of the stranger received 
the token of this covenant, he was included and in- 
terested in it; and the benefits promised were con- 
ferred upon him. Those persons bought with money 
were no longer looked upon as uncircumcised and 
unclean, as aliens and strangers; but were incorporated 
with the church and nation of the Israelites: and be- 
came one peopie with them, God’s covenanted people. 
The divine Jaw enjoined upon the Israelites, thus to 
circumcise all the males born in their houses; then 
‘fthe purchased servants had any children, their masters 


110 EXCUSZ3. 


were bound Ly the law to incorporate tiem into the’s 
i shurch and naticn. These children then were the | 
iW J servants of the Lord, in the same sense as the natural 9} 
| | 

i 

M 


SS See t= 


descendants of Abraham were; and therefore accord- 
ine to the law they could not be made slaves." Instead 
i) i of being authorized, the Israclites were evidently for. 
ift } bidden to enslave their servant’s children ; and there- 

Y fore so far from proving the lawfulness of our enslaving 


é 

i the children of the Africans, the practice is clearly 
| Hee’ condemned as criminai. Inthe law of Moses, no men- 
i A tion is made of the children of these servants, or i 
1e that they should Fe servants, or any thing concerning 
them; because they were already provided fer by the 
Jaw of circumcision. The word forever is evidently 
limited by the nature of the subject ; and the sense 
is, they shall serve you and your children as long as 
they live, or untif the Jubilee. These scripiures have 
been frequently and qwicked/y pressed into the servicc 
of Mammon: but this formidable artillery may be 
Bs fairly wrested from the enemy, to the destruction of 

| ‘fl he hosts of Mammonites.’ ¢ 


a capte  g = S 


merece 


ae 


SS 


“ No formal reproof of slavery occurs in the New 
i Testament. Other vices prevailed at that period, 


wi i 

it Ks ‘which are not expressly reproved: but they were cer- 

it Uh tainly condemned by the Redeemer anc his Disciples, 

ni a as evidently contrary to their doctrine. Polygamy and 
M a i divorce were allowed and practised, yet no express 
rae prohibition of them is recorded ; but in many passages 
ae i of the Gospel it is necessarily impliec. To detain 
| wi} our fellow-men in perpetual slavery is unjust, from 
4 iy 6 many scriptures, particularly from the Apostle’s ex- ji 
it ti hortation : Masters, give unto your servants that which Hy t | 
wera: is just and equal: knowing that ye also havea Master & 


in heaven: neither is there respect of persons with 
him.t The word translated equal, significs egualily : 
importing that masters ought to behave towards their 
servants not only with strict justice, but with miid- 
ness and benignity, as man ought to deal with man.’ § 

* Leviticus 25. 38—55. + Rice. | Colossians 4. |. 
Ephesians 6.9. § Brown’s Dictionary of the Bible 


id 


UN CUSES. baa 


‘this command alone is sufficient to confute 
und denounce every Man- Thief. A Slave-hol- 
der’s gustice d-frauds his neighbor, ofhis wife, 
his children, aad their labour, geese: them 
of ali religious instruction, and robs them of e- 
very terrestrial comfort. His equalizing benefi- 
cence destroys in all civil and moral relations, 
his stolen dependents. Notwithstanding he si- 
mulates that he is the follower of those, who 
continued in the Apostles’ doctrine and fellow- 
ship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers, 
and who parted their possessions and goods to all 
men. as every man had need.* Can it be beiiev- 
ed, that he who thus displays his nunconfarmity 
to Paul’s injunction, is an acceptable member 
of the same “church of Christ which daily im- 
proved not in numbers only, but in the zeal 
and fervour, holiness and charity of its mem. 
bers; beginning « kind of heavenly life upon 

rhe and being even in their w orldly goods, 
as well as in their hearts and affections, so per- 
fectly united, that they became the wonder of 
Vheir very enemies.’? Neither of the Apostles, 
nor of the Disciples, nor of the 120 nor of the 
8000 Pentecost Converts, nor of the 50U0 Be- 
levers, who saw the miracle performed upon 
the lame man, vor of the multitudes who were 
of one heart.and one soul, nor of the Priests 
who were obcdient to the faith, were Afan- 
stealers.{ Peter and John were noé kidnappers ; 


—— 


* Acts 2. 40-—47. { Acts. 5S. 4, 5. Chapters, 


ENCUSES. 


silver and gold have I none. Joses Barnains, 
though a Cyprusian, and all those upon whom 
Was great grace, were not Negro- Pedlars ; they 
sold lands and houses, but vo souls. Paul was 
no Slave-Driver ; these hands have ministered 
unto my necessities, and to them who were with 
me: we wrought with labour and travail night 
and day.* A Slave-holder has no juster claim 
_ tothe Christian character, than Demas, who 
forsook the Apostle, for the love of the present 
world ; or Alexander the Copper-Smith, who 
did him mnch evil. Of whom be thou ware al. 
so; for he hath greatly withstood our words.} 


“ The Foox who doubts, who asks for clearer proof, 
Must hood-wink’d be, indeed, and darkness love.” 


This is the condemnation, that light is comé into the 
world, and men love darkness rather than light, bes 
cause their deeds are evil. 

The apologists for tyranny state, that Paul advised 
servants to be contented with their servitude, and obe- 
dient to their masters; whom, though he charges to 
use their slaves well, he commands not to set them 
free ; and that the Apostle exhorts bond-servants of 
slaves to abide with God in that condition: whereas 
if slavery be sinful, they should not remain in vase 
salage.§ 

“ Christians were at that period under the Roman 
yoke, the government of the heathen ; who were watch- 
ing every opportunity to charge them with designs 
‘against the government, to justify their bloody pcre 
secutions. In such circumstances had the Apustle 
proclaimed liberty to the slaves, many of them would 
have been exposed to certain destruction, and tne. 
so “ 

® Acts 20. 34. 2 Thessalonians $. 8. Philippians 3. \T. 
+2 Zimothy 4. 10, 14, 15. § 1 Corinthians 7. 20—24, 


ai ee RS See 


= od 


a 
= 


Sa et ee SE Ra ee ee Perr ates oes 


EXCUSES. Hs 


christian cause might have been ruined, without freeing 
a single man: this would have been the heighth of 
madness and cruelty. It was wise and humane merely 
to hint, If thou mayest be made ‘ree, use it rather.”’¢ 

“ This clearly intimates that the persons in slavery 
whom he addressed might yse the means to ebtain their 
freedom. But although a man, trom the impossibility 
of procuring his liberty, mav continue with patience 
and holy contentment in bondage ; yet he who detains 
him in that state, is chargeable with injustice and 
oppression.” ¢ 

No Man-stealer could have belonged to the 
church of Christ which was at Corinth : for this 
admonition which is triumphantly adduced as 
an unanswerable defence of Slave-hoiders is 
almost equivalent to the law of Moses, which 
prohibits any person from attempting to ob- 
struct a slave in his escape, and enjoins upon 
all to aid his flight from bondage. Paul knew 
that the exactions and degradation of captivity 
were totally incompatible with his preaching ; 
he therefore advised slaves, to proctre their 
frecdem without delay; the means their own 
judgment might regulste, in subordination to 
the dictates of the Boox. he wee!thy primi- 
tive Christians bought the liberty of converted 
slaves ; but though they were thus purchased, 
Paul instructs the buyers, that they were not 
property ; tor he commands the manumited 
brethren to be no longer unconditional servants, 
as they were the Lord’s freemen. He who at- 
tempts to arrcst a run-away shave, is a cruel 


$ Rice. ~ Brown's Dictionary of the Holy Bibdié, 
2 : 


Sep 


Ee ee 


—e 5 


EXCUSES. 


and base .Vegro-Thief; and not less culpabic 
than the Tyrant, who scourges his returned 
slave to an inanimate corpse ; for he ts an ac- 
cessory. 

Vhe bondage of Onesimus and the high 
character of Philemon are often cited io sanc- 
tion the abominations of slavery. Onesimus 
was a scrvant for debt, who absconded previ. 
ous to its discharge ; yet evangelical philanthro. 
py exonerated him fron all obligation.f When 
a Chris'ian kidnapper! can prove that his slaves 
owe him any thing, the plea derived from the 
servitude of Qnesimus shall be heard; but 
while he has done all possible wrong to his 
brother, and has stolen his life, his liberty, and 
his happiness ; as long as his whole conduct ts 
“incurable injustice ; we shall affirm, that 
Man. stea'ers apd thcir co-adjutors are the 6. 
learned and unstable, who wrest this, as they 
do also the other scriptures to their own des: 
truction : and that like Simon Magus, Slave. 
holders and their abcttors. have neither part 
nor lot in the matter ; but are in the gall of 
bitterness and the bond of iniquity; for thee 
hearts. are not right in the sight of God. 

“It is asserted, that Negros were made slaves by 
law, they were converted into froferty by an act cf 
the legislature ; and. under the sanction o that law 


they were purchased ; they therefore became my pro- 
perty, I have a legal claim to them. To repeal th‘s 


- Jaw, to annihilate slavery, would be violently to de 


= 


‘4 Paul’s efistle fo Philemon... 


LIED AO SEE SEI ELV EES 


samen ee 
eee ear i 


IT 


rere 


EXCUSES, 1{$ 


stray what I legally purchased with my moncy, or 
inherit from my Father. It would be equally unjust 
with dispossessing me of my horses, cattle, or any 
any other species of property. To dispossess me of 
their offspring would be injustice equal-to disposses- 
sing me of the annual profits of my estate.” 
“Many years ago, men, being deprived of theiv 
natural right to frecdom, were m ide slaves, and by 
law converted into property. This law was wrong, 
for it established iniquify; it was against the law of 
humanity, of common sense, of reason, and of cor- 
science - It was however a faw; aud under the sanc- 
ticn of it. a nuinber of men, revardicss of its ini- 
quity, purchased these slaves, and made their fellow- 
men their property. Tne quesilon is concerning tke 
the liberty of ama. He himself ciamis itas his own 
property. He pleads that it was otiginaliy his own: 
that he has never forfeited, ne could wor alienate it; 
and therefore by the commen laws of justice and 
hunanity, it is stil his own The purchaser of the 
siave claims the same property. He p'cads, that he 
purchased it under the sanction of a law, cnacied by 


has the bestclaim? Did tois property beieng to the 
lecislature £ Was it vested in them? If legislatures 
are possessed of such properiy @s this, may another 
never exist !’? Amen and Amen. © No incividual of 
their costituents could claim itas their inherent right 5 
it was not in them collectively ; and therelore they 
could not convey it to their representatives. Was 
it ever known, that a people chose representatives. 
to create and transfer this kind of propery ? The 
legislature were not, could not be possessed of it; 
and thercfore could not transfer it to another ; they 
could not give what they themselves had not. Does 
the property belong to him, who received it from 
a legislature that had it not to give, and bya law 
which they had no right to enact; orto the original 
owner, who could never forfeithis right? Ifalaw 


the lecislature ; and therefore it became his. Who: 
s 


i ty. | Pr eS ee Pa TEER ee ee 
ye ih 1 
Hi 
4 H ii 
ae AB 116 EXCUSES. j 
i 

Rt i should pass to sell an innocent man’s head, and { 
val should purchase it: have [I in consequence of this 
Ate law and this purchase, a better claim to the man’s 

Tei head that he has himseif? To call our fellow-men, 
Na our property, is a gross absurdity, a contradiction to 
qt | common sense, and an indignity te haman nature, 

i fae The owners of slaves are then licensed robbers, and 


i not the just proprietors of what they claim: freeing 
| them is not depriving them of property, but restoring 
it to the right owner; it is suffering the unlawful 


ss 
ee 


Wet a ee - oe : ple tas i Pianantee: 


fi! 
4 captive to escape. [It is not wronging the master, 
1g 4 but doing justice to the slave, restoring him to himsclf. 
ih i} « You say, that emancipation would be unjust, be- #7 
‘te 4 i, cause it woukd deprive men of their’ property : but Hit 
i}, is there no injustice on the other side? Is noboay 9yih 
La entitled to justice, but slave-holders ? Let us weigh @f 
{ i ; the injustice in an even balance. Here is a man de- i 
Hi prived of all property, of all capacity to possess ] 
{i at Property, of his own free agency, of the means of if) 
Vics instruction, of his wite, of his children, and of every If 


bl thing dear to him; and aman deprived of 8U or a 
16U pounds. Who is the greatest sufferer, anc wien 
is treated with the greatest in/ustice ? Emancip ition 
would only take away property that is 1s Owl pro- 


sae 


ii 

} 
Ht 
' 


Ht Ri perty, and not ours ; property that has the same right 7 
a " 10 possess us, as we have to possess it: property 9 
Vd, that has the same right to convert our chi.dren into iy} 

th a doys, and calves and colts, as we have to convert ; 

ba Bes ae _ theirs into these beasts = property that may transfer fat} 

ri i i! our children to strangers, by the same right that we fi) 
( ae transter their’s. iit 
1 id is “In America, a slave is a standing monument of ie | 
Haas, the tyranny and inconsistency of human governments. 

j if He is declared by the united voice of America, to be ff 

| t 


by nature free, and entitled to the privilege of ac- Hay 
quiring and enjoying property ; aud yet by laws passed 
and enforced in these states, he is retained in slavery) fj, 
and dispossessed of all property and Capacity of acquit’ 
ing any. They have furnished a sttiking instance of & 


= 


peas 


ee 


ss 


EXCUSES L17 


a poopie carrying on a war in defeace of principles, — 


which they are actually and avowedly destroying by 
leral force; thus using one measure for themselves 
and another for their neighbours. Ali men are by 
nature free, and entitled to freedom, until they fors 
feit it. Now to enact that men are slaves, is to fly 
in our own face, to contradict ourselves; to proclaim 
before the world our inconsistency, and to warn men 
to reposeno confidence in us? What credit can we 
ever expect? What confidence can we repose in 
each other? None.” 

“ Are werulers? How can the people confide in 
us, after we have thus openly declared that we are 
void of truth and sincerity ; and that we are capable 
of enslaving mankind in direct contracdiction to our 
own principles? \Vhat confidence in legislators, who 
are capable of declaring their constituents all fiee 
men in one breath; and in the next, enacting them 
all slaves? In one breath, declaring that they have 
a right to acquire and posscss property; and, in the 
next, that they shall neither acquire nor posscss it 
during their existence here? Can I trust my life, 
my liberty, my property in such hands as these ?t 
Will the colour of my skin prove a suflicicnt de- 
fence against their injustice and cruclty ? ¢ Wiallthe 
particular circumstance of my ancestors being born 
in Europe, and no: in Africa, defend me?§ Will 
straight Aair dcéfend me trom the blow that falls so 
heavy on the woolly head ?|| Iff am a dishonest man, 

* The Legislatures of the Slave-holding States have 
not the confidenee of Christians, because they believe 
not the BOOK 

t You are an IDIOT, if you trust men who swear 
that a Negro its property. 

$¢ They would faint you black, or stval you white, 
if they dared. 

§ They would rather kidnap you, than an Africans 

| Yse, until they are not afraid to strike, 


ite pee es en 
ee eg ene 


ee 


eae 


= 


SH ry 


or 
> 


Po a ee ek 
reap apm enue es gece 


= 


a. 


rls KRXCUSES. 


if gain is my Goad, and this may be acquired oy suc 
an unrighteous law, I may rejoice to find it cnacted,; 
but I never can believe that the legislature were 
honest men; or repose the least confidence in them, 
when their own interest leads them to betray it. | 
‘never can trust the integrity of that jadge who caa 
‘sit upon the scat of justice and pass an unrighteous 
judgment, |] because it is agreeable to law; when that 
Jaw itself is contrary to the light and law of nature.’% 

“ Justice ought to extend her protection with rigid 
impartiality to the rich and to the poor, to the powerful 
and to the humble. A legislative coatract for tue 
continuance of slavery must have been void, even 
from t'e beginning ; for it is an outrage upon justice, 
acd only another name for fraud, robbery and inur- 
der; as well might an individual think himself bound 
by a promise to commit an assasinauon. Our pro- 
ceeding on such grounds, would infringe all the prip- 
ciples of law, and subvert the very foundation of morali- 
ty. Slavery is a mass, a system of enormitics, which 
incontroyertibly bid defiance to every regulation which 
ingenuity can devise, or power cffect, but a toil 
estincUon.’’* 

“ Man-stealers excuse themsclves upon the pla, 
that if the slaves were emancipated, they ceuld harcly 
be restrained from disorders which might cad ange: 
the public peace—No apprehension of this kind cau 
excuse our continuing in an unjust and inhu.nan prac- 
tice. The fear of man bringeth a snare. Wh-n the 
path of duty is plain, Christians should resolut ly ad- 
here to it, leaving the event to the Providence of 
God.’’+ 

“© OF two evils, we should chuse the least: this is 
a good rule, when applied to natural evils; but with 
meral evils, it has nothing to do, for of these we C. use 
Neither ; af one be natural and the other a moral eyil. 
|| Vertcr, they are “ik OGUES ALL.” 
4G Rice. * William Pitt. 

{ Browa’s Dictionary of the Holy Bible. 


EXCUSES, ins 


we must always chuse tic natural evil; for moral 
evil, sin. can never be an object of choice. Evshs ing 
Mf our fellow-creatures is a moral evil; and the na oval 
H evil cffects of emancipation can never be a balince 


‘iq for the moral evils of slavery. These evils are charges 


able on us. Hence, we should be seusible of the 
euilt of our conduct, and persist in It no longer —= 
This is a very powerful arguinent asainst slavery, 
a convincing proof of its imquity. It ruins God’s 
j creatures whom he has made tree moral agents, and 

accountable beings ; who sull belong to him. and who 
are not left to us to ruin at our pleasure.’’§ 

“ Why ought slavery to be abolished? Because 
itis incurable injustice. Why is injustice to remain 
for a single hour?’ Tf the situation of Negros 
were as happy as servitude could make them, I must 
not commit the enormous crime of sclling man to 
@man; for which not one reason can be given, that 
iB is consistent with Poricy, Humanity or Jusricn.’’t 


UW“ Never was a system so big with wickecness or 


cruclty ; in whatever part of it you direct your view, 


Veithe eye finds no comfort, no satisfaction, no relief, 


iW It is the prerogative of slavery to separate from evil 


i# its concomitant good, and to reconcile discordant mise 


chiefs ; it robs war of its generosity, it deprives peace 
V4 of its security. You have the vices of polished socirty 
Without its knowledge or its comforts; and the evils 
ot barbarism without its simplicity Its ravages are 
constant and unintermitted in the extent; in the con- 
‘inuance, universal and indiscriminate. No age, no sex, 
10 rank, no condition is exempt from the fatal influence 
iH of this wide-wasting calamity! ‘Thus it is the full 
49 Measure of pure, unmixed, unsophisticated wickedness ; 
and scorning all competition or comparison, it stands 
Without a rival in the secure, undisputed possession 
of its detestable pre-eminence.’’} 


—— 


in «§ Rice. § William Pitt. 
1: Charles James Fox. $ William Wilberforce, 


ee 


~— 9 et 


Rg I LS 


‘it ; 

qi (ise EXCUSES. 

ire 

af = . x e- = 
Hah} Yet in Columbia! Gospel Ministers and » 
if ii) / Piofessing Chii-ians not defend only, but 
i engage in this unparallelled villany ALY 
a! , 
iH 3 bowels, my bowels ! Lam pained at my very 
ev heart ; my heart maketh a roise in me: I can- 
Fe 40 J 
(ah not hold my peace. 


Constantine, in the year 313, published an 


if edict ; which declared all those free, who had 
ail been condemned to slavery by Maxentius ; 
ifs commanding, under the severest penalties, all 
Aged who held them in captivity to restore them | 
if ti to their liberty. In the year 316, he enacted 
Th another law, and addressed it to Protogenes, 
lig Bishop of Smyrna; by which he permitred 


all masters to enfranchise their slaves in the 
a presence of Christians, assembled with their 
H pastors in the church, without recurring to 
the pretors and consuls. ‘* Thus the manu- 
mission of slaves, which before was attended 
with great difficulties and -expence, became 
easy, and not chargeable ; the masters being 
obliged to attend only at the church.” Chri- 
stianity will always abolish slavery ; no danger | 
attaches to an immediate and universal eman- | 
cipation ; and the only effectual mode to era- 
dicate the evil, is to destroy thieving by law; 


5 a et to fellow Constantine’s example; to dreak 
rf i: fi - every yoke ; to let the oppressed go frees d 
1 et to folfl Paul’s direction, et Aam that siole, 

a steal no more.* 


y 
f ay 


_ * Ephesians 4 28, 


SE 


EXCUSES. 


‘The ancient and universal extension of sla- 
yery is an effectual argument against the sys- 
tem. Its origin in days of moral darkness af- 
fords a powerful plea against its equity and 
continuance ; and the support which modern 
Man-stcalers derive from this example is visi- 
onary. Servitude in Abrahim’s family was ve- 
ry different from the degradation of our color- 
ed population. Eliezer of Damascus was the 
Patriarch’s steward, and his servants, had he 
died childtess, would have been his heirs.* 
But as they worshipped Abraham's God, and 
were included in the covenant made with him, 
by circumcision, they were governed with pa- 
ternal benevolence. Vhe Heads of Families, 
when they lived a wandering life, were civil 
governors of all who served them. 23. 

From the conduct of Isaac and Jacob, no 
principle can be deduced in defence of slavery, 
Modern Slave-holders shall have all the conso- 
lation Which they can extract from the long. 
protracted generality of man-stealing, when 


they can evidence their title to the approbation 
which the Lord expressed of Abraham. | 


28. The original Ilebrew states not, that the Do- 
mestics whom Abraham bought with his money, or 
who were descended from them, were involuntary 
servants: for the word includes no such idea, as mo- 
dern slavery. Our Jaws, opinions, practice and man- 
agement of these degraded sons of wretchedness, all 
leciare, that in our judgment, they are merely cattle 
 buman shape. 

* Genesis 15 3 t Genesis 18. 16—19. 


L.- 


— 
Aer Je 


V2 i EXCUSES 
By uviversaiantiguiry, an incessant violation 
of every law of decency, virtue, and religion 
inight be established as the highest duty of 
min. 
[low astonishing the fact! Professing Chris- 
Y Gans transform che Book into a minister of un- 
TIGhTEOUSNESS 5 and.when impelicd from one 
subterfuge resort to another. lf Nimrod’s op- 
pressions are urged against their impicty, they 
take refuge in Abrahams faith ; and if the Pa- 
i triarch’s justice and judgment which they ne- 
a ver exemplify, tculcate their condemnation, 
\, they shelter themselves under the prediction 
‘of Noah, which denounced seryitude as the in- 
iit  heritance of Canaan’s posterity : thus pervert 
it ing the word of God, into a sanction of their 
Ee ection s 
The declaration that Canaan’s descendents 
i ) shal} be servants is thrice repeated ; but Haim’s 
other posterity are not included 3; for Ham’s 
- name is pot even introduced.{ The denunciati- 
Son of Noah has been remarkably verified im 
the history of the Canaanites, who from the pe- 
riod when the iniquity of the Amorites was full, 
have seldom been released from the exactions 
of foreign tyrants. But if the prophecy be ree 
ferred to the descendants of Ham generally, the 
curse has not becn experienced by the people, 
"She partial slavery of Negros will not invall- 


date the truth; because no ancient and accvssi- 


3 Genesis 9. 25—27. 


a 


a ee 


=. 


Sea on > 
= a ~ — => 


i 
| 
a 
hd 


ins 


CAS Bee nS 


ameter ne 


= = 


EXCUSES. bea 


ote partot tac mihabited globe is su completely 
unknown, as the terior of Africa. 29. 

Wonld the passage bear the construction 
which Siave-@.ders assert; their criminality 
would not be diminished. “Che mercy of God 
as not revealed tous, the knowledge of future 
occurrences, if the actions which shall produce 
the events detailed include guilt in the perpe- 
trator, that we may unite inthe completion of 
‘hem ; but that the truth of the Scriptures may 
be indubitably established. 

‘Yhis transmutation of the word of God, by 
claiming a prophetic curse, or a controverted 
doctrine, or a dubious scripture, as a rule for 
our actions, and a defence of our sins, thereby 
authorizing any, man to distort the Book, into 
a prediction of crimes which he had resolved 
tocommit, is a most dangerous and reprehense 
ible delusion. God has most emphatically at. 
tested, that his wrath shall be effused upon 
Babylon ; but the persons who execute 
the judgment will doubtless’ perform the 
grand design, from selfish and ambitious views. 
Christians will mark the progress of the ven- 


29. How many Negros are sold and bought like 


By ecasts in a market, and conveyed from one quarter 
ef the world, to do the work of beasts in another ! 


This however in no measure vindicates the covctous 


eigend barbarous oppression of those, who thus enrich 


themselves with the products of their sweat and blood. 
God will severely punish such cruel injustice. How 
‘an it consist with love to our neighbours, to hold 


“Ohem in slavery ? Score, 
ie y 


i ge atm 


ji4 EXCUSES® 


geance, and rejoice in the destruction, but tacy 
will not actively participate in the horrors of 
the tremendous overthrow. 50. 

Negro-dealers udduce the Mosaic law and 
Jewish example as an excuse for their avarice ; 
but this originates in ignorance of the ancient 
economy, or misinterpretation of the Book, or 
a falsification of the facts, or corrupt deducti- 
ons from the scriptural narrative. 

Livery practice which requires a sophisticat 
interpretation of the sacred volume to counte- 
nance it, must be sin. ‘The path of duty is il- # 
jumination : and in morals and religion, any if 
action which obliges us to search after argu- 
ments to pacify us in the perpetration of it, is 
transgression of the divine conimand. 

The theocratical establishment was appoint- 
ed by. God,. to preserve the children of Israei 
a distinct nation. ‘To them were committed 
the divine oracles, that the fundamental princi- 
Le 

30. Martin Luther and Henry VIII. were employ: 
ed in diminishing the Papal supremacy The Refor- 
mer engaged the anti-christian rule with the armour 
of God; his was a bloodless contest, waged from ce: 
lestial motives, conducted with evangelic ardour, pro- #}}} 
ductive of the most glorious triumphs, and rewarded #}]) 
with honour and immortality. A Tyrant’s acts, through 
the dispensations of an ail-benevolent God, involved j 
a similar result: but his arms were terrestrial pow- @} 
er, his war, a combat for superiority, his impulse, 
lasciviousness, his fervor, the offspring of ambition and 


sensuality, and his memory is consigned to unmitig: @] 
able execraticn. 


~<a i 
r 


Excuscs. 125 


ples of all religion and morality might not be 
totally banished from the earth. The severest 
regulations respecting their intercourse with 
idolaters were consequently indispensable. All 
the inhibitions of their Lawgiver which re- 
ferred to the Gentiles were promulged, to 
preserve the Israclites pure from the surround- 
ing contagion; and it was necessary that the 
worshippers of false Gods who might reside 
among them, or who might be subdued in 
# war, should be considered as people inferior 
4 to themselves, on account of their ignorance 
Wa of Jehovah, the only true God. ‘They were 
‘Wi therefore’ authorized to purchase ard retain 
4 such persons as slaves. But the Jewish writers 
Gil attest, that Heathens who had been thus en- 
Hi slaved, if they continued Idolaters at the close 
fof the first year, were returned to the country 
OG whence they were procured ; if they remaiiied 

in the land, having acknowledged the Lord 
God of Israel, unless they voluntarily con- 
Hscnted to stay with their masters, and the 
marecogmition of this fact was most solemn and 
public, they were manumitted at the retorn 
Agof the Sabbatical year ; even if they had thus 
devoted themselves to the service of others, 
at the sound of the Jubilee trumpet, every 
man throughout the land of Canaan, was in- 


—s~ — 
ee = —~ 


9 
-~ 


HAstantaneously free. Had not this been Jewish 
i . neon 

“ i) Wpractice, it would not have attes'ed the events 

iit AgWhich it was destined to prefigure. 

ae |: F 5 

om 

i 


eer 


—— 


= 


a os 


inshore 


126 EXCUSES. 


as 


Pn Nd 
ames 


, "The Mosaic law has been most grossly dis- 
torted for avaricious purposes. By it the Jews 
were authorized to purchase the neighbouring 
Idolaters for bond-men, but they were not 


a 
eon ee 
Set 7 
— o> pa Ege SS} 
SE SES ts ar tt 
J 


eed 


{2 
: Y sanctioned in enslaving their children. * The 
% off-pring could not have been retained in bon- 
i. dage ; because every child born in the family 
i! was circumcised at 8 days old, became a mem- 


ber of the \fovenant, and was heir to all the 
a bie blessings of Palestine, as much as a real dcs- 
PY cendent of the Father of the faithful. A Jew 
| ih could nor steal, sell, or make merchandize of 
i I one of these, more than he could have violent- 
in ty ty transported one of his brethren for sale to the 
ae jand of the Ishmaelites. 

YB gti Jewish history affords an insurmountable ob- 
a) jection to slavery. Joshua and the Elders, te 
“a punish their deception, doomed the Gibcon- 
ites to perpetual attendance at the temple ; but 
a Saul’s oppression of their descendents was the | 
fi cause of a three years’ dearth in the land.t ‘The | 
; sword, pestilence, and famine, were all den- | 
ounced against Judah, in consequence of their # 
unrighteous exactions from the widow, the or- | 
}} = phan, -the impoverished, the stranger, and # 
4 those whom they had enslaved. How seduc- § 
4 tive is avarice | Notwithstanding the Jews had 
sich { ; not long been released from Chaldean vassalage, 
aH speedily after their return to Canaan, they be- | 
Pe i) ——— ‘ : 


‘| * Leviticus 25. 44—46. + Joshua 9. 3—27. 


mr 


sree ne Se some neat aE NNN 


a Samucl 21. I-14 ¢ Jeremiah 34. 8—22- 


EE 


a ee ™ 


= 


EXCUSES. 127 


gan to oppress the poor, and to defraud the 
wretched ; contrary tothe law of Moses, and 
in direct defiance of their own sensibilities, a- 
gitated stull with the remembrance of the mis- 
erics which in banishment they bad endured.* 
If involuntary servitude be defensible upon 
moral principles, high example would sanction 
it; but it world not be known that slavery ex- 
isted among the Jews, ifthe Prophets had not 
menaced them for this atrocious criminality. 
So far is the Mosaic code from legalizing the 
cruelty which Slave-dcalers constonsly exhibit, 
that a considerable proportion of the Jewish 
Legislator’s mandates are solely directed to the 
inculcation of merciful tempers, and the exhi- 
bition of generous affections towards inferinrs. 

To impress the children of Israel with a per- 
manent sense of all the horrors of captivity, to 
imbue them with the most active sympathy for 
human wo, and to nurture the most ardent de- 
sires and zeal to mitigate the distresses of their 
fellow-men ; they were. continually reminded 
of the degradation, wretchedness, and oppres- 
sions, under which their ancestors in Egypt so 
long groaned, and whence they were delivered 
solely by the mighty arm of SchovahNissi. The 
recollection of their former national servitude, 
and the miracles which were requisite to deliv- 
erthem from their Task-masters, niust have 
inspired in every pious Jew, a holy and insup- 


ne 
* Nehemiah. 5 l—13. 


Oe 


= nee 


Sa Ee Se 


128 EXCUSES¢ 


erable aversion from the principle and practice 
of slavery, and of every iniquitous approach to 
the infliction of the wo. Soul.Merchants can 
designate no H-eaven-delegaied Prophet, no ex- 
emplaryv Priest, 00 Christian Apostle, no mar- 
tyred Disciple of the Lamb that was slain, and 
neiihcr ot them upon whom was great grace, 
of whon the world was not worthy, strangers 
and pilgrims on earth, who was a Man stealer’s 
co-adjutor. From the exalted abodes of peren- 
nial felicity, in waich the spirits of the just 
made perfect dwell, if they know what passes 
upon earth, they must feel all holy indignation, 
that men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, 
who suppose that gain is godliness, should per- 
vert their characters, opmions, and example, 
into a mass of hard-heartedness, worldly equi- 
vocations, and the “highest kind of theft,” 
with the direct view of procuring a sanction 
from the pious dead, for the iniqaitous practi- 
ces of the ungodly living. 
~ Columbians plead justification for stealing 
and enslaving Africans; they are of a different 
colour, and not Christians, therefore we are 
authorized to kidnap them for our avarice and 
luxury. Such is an Algerine’s defence for 
selling every ‘Infidel dog’ whom he can grasp; 
they are not Mussulmen ; the tinge of his skin 
shews that he is not of the Prophet's family ; 
steal and torment him. ‘hus men depart from 
the wavs of righteousness ! their principles are 
deceptive ; their desires are after covetousness 3 


——— 


es 


ee sce iy 


LAC USES, Ezy 


their solicitudes are earthly, sensual, devilish ¢ 
and to them the gospel is hid, because the god 
of this world hath blinded their minds ! 

Christ and the Apostles are our sole pattern, 
The admission of varied temporary indulgences 
among the Israelites, as a basis for our con- 
duet, would totally destroy socicty. If the ex- 
ample of David, Solomon and others, is to be 
valid, in cases where they acted without or a- 
gainst the directions of the Mosaic code,* the 
gospel is nugatory, and Christ has died in vain. 

At the promulgation of the law from Mount 
Sinai, to render its prescriptions more authori- 
tative, the Lord enforces its requisitions by re- 
minding them of his mercy and power, and of 
their misery ; claiming obedience for his char- 
acter, his loving-kindness, and their deliver- 
ance. Fain the Lord thy God. who brought thee 
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of 
bondage.t 

A company of Ishmaelites, with a horde of 
stolen captives, approach the habitation of a 
man who conscientiously desires to fulfil the 
law of God ; they offer to sell him an Egyptian ; 
a Levite accosts him, and asks, if he can rec- 
oncile the purchase of that man as his slave, 
with all the horrors which are included in the 
declaration of Jehovah, as the exordium of the 
law, and with the mercy which the code inva- 
riably requires ; with this recollection could he 
buy a bond-man ? 


eed 


* Deuteronomy 17. 17. ¢ Exodus 29. 2. 


CSD ee Nn er AN 


Sn EL BT 


=. Seger eA ROIS 


aves 


i a ee er 


Fa ep 
‘ 


EXCOSES. 


Cainites witha number o! kidnapped .sfric- 
ans, trafiick slaves ata Coluinbian’s door. Say 
tohim, were not you oppressed by a foreign 
tyrant, you rebelled and obtained your freedom, 
how can you enthral these outcasts? dare you 
purchase these heirs of wo, who were stolen at 
their birth, and can you enslave them for ever? 
You swear, that all men are born free ; you be- 
lieve, that man-stealing is the greatest crime ; 
you know, that slave-holding ts contrary to e- 

uity, humanity, and reciprocal benevolence ; 
you feel, that you would most ardently repro. 
bate and resist such conduct if it were attempt- 
ed respecting you; and your conscience as- 
sures you, that God will requite you, as you 
have injured your fellow-man: but ie buys, 
and enslaves these wretched victims of avarice ! 
A Christian Republican ! No charity can induce | 
the belief that a man who ackowledges the ex- | 
cellence of pure and undefiled religion, can be 
so incurably blinded, or that the moral sense | 
can be so completely extinguished, that he is 
incapable to perceive the difference between e- 
vangelical righteousness, and incessant cruelty, 
rapine and oppression. 

No disciple of Messias can plead Jewish ex- 
ample. Cull no man Master upon earth. Negro- 
deilers must demonstrate, either that the Lord 
aud his primitive disciples were S!ave-holders, 
or that their doctrines and precepts countenance 
the systein, ie 


=~ see ae 


UXE@USES. ite 


As HE who had not where ts lay his head, 
or his Aposides were not human flesh weighers, 
Oppressors plead, that the New- festament is 
altogether silent upon slavery ; and if it were 
so condemnable, it would have been pointedly 
reprobated. Our Lord did not admonish Man- 
stealers, by their own appellation, to desist 
from theie ungodliness ; but he who can recon- 
cile the Redcemer’s doctrines, and Apostolic 
injunctions with American bondage, can join 
heaven and hell—to him, vice and virtuc, ee 
guity and injustice, kindness and cruelty, op- 
pression and benevolence, thieving and probi- 
ty, infidelity and religion, all are identical, 31, 


$31. All defence of slavery, upon the silence of the 


Wi) New-Testament respecting this crime. is baseless. 


Matthew 5. 7, 3l—48. and 6. 12, 14, 15, 19—21, 
“4. and 7 1, 2, 12, 16, 20. and It. SI—42. anc Ig. 
“135. and 19. 16—30. and 22 34—40. and 23. 25 
“4. and 25. SI—46. Mark 10. 17—S1. andl 1s— 
13. Luke 4, 16—22 aml 6. 27—38. and JO 25—37. 
Md 1) 46—352. and 12. 1S—21. and 18, 18—S80. and. 
19. T="10. John iS) 1—20. and 15. 12—14. Acts 


D} 


- 41-47. and 4, 32—_37. and 17. 24—28 Romans 


E j-- I1—S, 17—29. and 12. 9, 10 and 13 g-~10. 


Corinthians 7 21—33. and 18. 4—7. Ephesians 


- 10. 2 Timothy $3. 2—8. Philemon 10—21, 
james 2. l—=10. and 5. 4 1 Peter 4 8. 1 John 


| 

Ws 25—-S2. and 6 9. Colossians 4. 1. 1 Timothy 
l 
J 


; 2 15—-17. and 3. 1418. and 4. 20, 21. Revelati- 
Mii 18. 13 ; 


ALL things whatsoever ye would that men should 
9 unto you, do ye even so unto them; for this is 


Whe LAW and the Profihets. If any man can deduce 
Hite injustice, the barbarity, and the oppressions of 


t/ 


Sree pee aa 
=: 


PS 
* sities 
= 


————_—-~ 
on 


a es 
= ane te ele ir : + e 
plipnaln = a 
———_ a ae ; 
SSS —— ae =H 


rnb ee 


ST sae a, 


= 5A 2 


as 


SS hy 
SS 
See 
— 


by 


ae om 


na SRR SE 
eo Sere 
race ae 


ee 


a 
i areal as ee re 


Saat 


eee 
as 


& 


a3 EXCUSED, 


Negro: Dealers aver, that they have a jusi 
sitle to then slaves. How cana claim to the 
human race as property, be valid 2? All our 
terrestrial possessions were included in the ori. 
ginal grant made to Adam in Paradise,* and 
to Noul and his Sons after the deluge. { But 
human hfe, with all the concomitants which are 
necessary toa fulfilment of its objecis, was 


excepted + thes. fore, no tile, by any lapse of » 


time, or an; distance of transfer, or any tcrres- 
trial authority, ever could be made to the per- 
sons of men. 


‘They innocently and honestly obtained pos: | 


session of their siaves, and if the State liber- 


a'e them, they ought to be remunerated.’ What + 


obduracy ! Men require to be paid for ceas- 
1 


ing from the highest kind of theft ; and demand | 


to be requited for delivering that which they 


stole. How cana Slave-Driver be innocent of 


honest, ia his connection with his dependents ? 
No domestic tyrant believes his own assertion, 


he feels, that he is a cruel Oppressor ! and it | 


—_ 


nian-stealing, from this fundamentul rule of social re- 4 


ciprocity, his moral alembic must combine properties | 


vastly different from any extractor yet discovered. 
These citations either immediately reprobate cove- 


tousness, extortion, and tyranny, oF they inculcate | 
justice, philanthropy, and mercy ; and it is absolute: | 


ly impossible to conjoi these directions and examples | 
wtih the bondage of men, or to explain them in any | 


manner, by which Slave-holders are not most in- 
dignantly and awfully censured. 


* Genesis 1. 28—30. + Genesis 9. 17. 


_——~. -ae  e 


SKXCUSES, 133 


1s equitable, to manumit his slaves. Instead 

of rewarding men for stealing no more, the 

whole that they have jfilched from the poor 
Negro, with ample addition for all the misery i 
and cruelty which he has endured, should be 
righteously exacted. 

The Legislatures of some Statcs have ob- Mt 
structed the easy emancipation of slaves.—. 
Slave-holders elect men to enact iniquitous 

| aws, and exonerate themselves by the legisla- ‘| 
itive proceedings. [Every voter for a public i | 
| fijoflicer, who will not destroy the system, A 
| iis as culpable as if he participated in the evil, 
ij and is responsible for the protraction of the 
| Wicrime. If a slave cannot be hberated in one 
(| State, he may in another, and it is an individ- 
ual’s duty to exonerate himself. No human 
|!aw must be obeyed when it contravenes the 
divine command ; but slavery is the combina- i 
 aition of all iniquity, and thercfore every man 4 
| Gifis obligated not to participate in its corruption. : 
| Bi In all cases obedience to the divine wiil 
Micombines the most certain safety. God wilt 
| Wprotect those who act in comformity with his 
‘icommands: and as no plea can avail for i 
‘ithe continuance of slavery one moment, since 
|) Wits iniquity is so prodigious—the most secure 
i mode to be absolved from danger, is '‘* cease " 
to do evil and learn to do well.” ‘The national 
‘|iidifficulty is not from emancipation, but from 
aj servitude. .Vegro. Pedlars say that ifthe colored __ 
people were free, the property, and livesof °° 


a : Is 


<a 


ios’ EXCUSES, 


the other inhabitants would be jeopardized. ]) 
This is a gratuitous assumption ; and will not 9) 
excuse the sin. Some Negros may be so ]| 
vitiated that thay would commit depredations , }} 
for as the slaves have never seen any practices | 
in their tyrants but oppression, it would be i 
preposterous not to anticipate that the unin-— 
structed servant, would act like him, whom | 

he has seen honored in proportion to the j| 
quantum of his theft. A man in the Slave- J) 
states who claims no Negros is despised ; if ]| 
he has kidnapped a score, he is a Gentleman ; at 
i. ‘but if he has stolen a hundred, he is a jf 
rh Nason. 32. 1 
Every plea and excuse in support of Slavery | 
i being invalid, originating in depravity, sustained } 
i al by corruption, and productive of all diversi- }} 
gait | fied ungodliness, no Christian can allege, or 4) 
Hale defend them. or practice the iniquity which §} 
i they are formed to exculpate. : 


: HG 
eR) ayt ; 


SS 


es 


aE a 
Ray Bin pe 


= 


ete oy 


on 


eo 


<= 


A as “PS 


ih i.*  / ~ 32. How shall we expel the evil? Colonization is 9) 
‘4 totally impracticable. The enaction of a law to exclude 9) 

a Slave-holders from every Fublic Office, would in- 
ie stantly destroy the pestilence which ravages the body 
+ t politic all other regulations are futile. 


CONCLUSION. 


et GD 


MEN AND BRETAREN: 


HEAR the word of admomtion. If sucia 
be the origin, character, defence and effects 
i) of slavery, such its contradiction to sound rea- 
son, such its opposition to the rights of man, 
such its aversion from every affectionate sensi- 
biltty, and such its condemnation by the Word 
of God, how can you participate in its wicked- 
ness? Is it not almost incredible, that citizens 
of the United States, the only land of civil 
and religious freedom, should have established 
a system of servitude which extinguishes every 
personal right, nullifies every sacred obliga. 
tion; and that Christians should maintain this 
atrocity? ‘Tell it not in Gath. Messias’ Dis- 
ciples profess that they are probationers for 
that kingdom and glory to which God has 
called his children. Bui adaptation is indispens- 
able to our admission at Heaven’s gate. Can any 
rational mind believe that a man who has pas- 
sed his threescore years and ten in the spirit and 
practice of all the merciless oppressions which 
are the invariable concomitant of slavery, is 
capacitated to engage in the devotions, to exem- 
plify the righteousness, or to manifest the love 
which reign in the boundless regions of eternal 
felicity ? 


v 


)) 


Fa bane ae alls 


we PS 

<7 x 

eee 
oe, 


eee 


RSS ES Le 
as tes — -h.. 


es en 7 


"That worship of God upon earth he restrain. 
ed; that equity he never cultivated; that 
charity he always counteracted. A meetness 
for Paradise, he has consequently not attained. 
How can the Christian Church longer tolerate 
so shameless an absurdity as a profession of | 
religion, and eternal man-stealing ? 33. 

The Officers of the Church arc undeniably 
censurable. Of two sects of Christians, the | 
public formularies expressly reprobate slavery, | 
as the highest crime which can be perpetrated, | 
and any connection with it, as ample evidence, 
that the parties are not followers of the Lamb. 
‘This is their Farr: what are their works ? 
Publish it not in Askelon. 

You are now, all called to repentance.— 
Preachers, Elders, Exhorters, Deacons, Lea- | 
ders, and Professors : how can you deny your | 
own creed ? how can you falsify your own 
faith ? how can you profess that slavery is 
the highest crime against God and Man, anc |}, 
practise it? how can you promulge that a jj 
Slave-holder is the most guilty Thief, and | 
notwithstanding yourselves continue to steal, 
and affirm that you are sanctified ? how can 
you declare that ‘ upon the principle of equity, 
no man can be a Slave-hoider, that all Slave- 
holders are Negro-Stealers, the Devil’s Dogs 


53. How did the Devil persuade men that a Slave- 
holder was a Christian? This is a problem totally 
incapable of solution, by any human ingenuity or wisdem 


soo a es 
—ss 


== 
owe. 


137 


and Children,’”’ and nevertheless yourselves be 
characterized as merciless Flesh Merchants ? 
how dare you most solemnly admit your own 
Faith, promise to comply with it through 
all opposition and persecution, and notwith- 
standing, neither admonish the guilty, nor in- 
culcate the Truth, but engage in Man. steal- 
ing, and sustain the Christian Negro- Thiet 
in his religious Profession ? 
The Church of God groans. It is the ut- / 
most Satanic delusion to talk of religion and 
slavery. Be not deceived: to affim that a 
Slave-holder is a genuine disciple of Jesus 
Ciirist, is most intelligible contradiction. A 


jijorother of him who went about doing good, 
find steal, enslave, torment, starve, and scourge 
dja man because his skin is of a different tinge ! 
WjjSuch Christianity is the Devii’s manufacture 
jjto delude souls to the regions of wo. 


You are Christians! you profess that you 


ijfecl bowels of mercy ; and hold in free-born 
slavery the descendants of stolen Africans ! 
NyYour Christianity is a non-entity. You are 


« Class- Leader ! you ask your Cluss-mate, how 
he has lived during the past week ?—he in- 
lorms you, of his peace of conscience, and 
love of God; and you saw him half-murdermg 
his servants ; you know that his dependent 
is naked, without food, houseless and: miser- 
able ; do you beheve him 2 Youarea Deacon ! 
You converse with a Professor: he assures 


you, that he endeavors to obtain heavenly 
2 


f 
ti 
HH 
ha 


eros oe 


ie 


2 pe 


‘bliss, conformably to the example of the Friend 


138 


of Sinners ; but you are certified that asa 
Magistrate, he swears, “all men are born free,” 
and nevertheless, detains his Christian brother 
in slavery: no man can credit such absurd | 
contradictions. ‘You are an Eixhorter: you | 


t 


are at a Prayer Meeting: you ask your friends jf 
to engage in the exercises; they plead for jj 
the mercy, pardon, love, benevolence, and ap- 
probation of God, because they manifest those } 
affections in their intercourse with men, and 
notwithstanding hold slaves! can you subjoin | 


un Amen to such hypocrisy ? 


t 
t 
' 
t 
j 


vinegar 2 Who can place the smallest con- | 
fidence in you? j 
You are a Preacher: you have the Book |] 
as your light ; and the Book as your sole re- 9] 
muneration. ‘Fhat Book informs you, that}) 
slavery is the acme of all unrighteouness 5} 
you are a Slave-hoider! that Book teaches }}) 
you, that the worst of all sinners is the Church. 9} 
Officer who. engages in the iniquity which} 
he ought to reprove, or connives at the trans- 1 
gressor, whom he should admonish : Yct,4 


you are either a Kidnapper or his Defender !} 


5 { 


Longer to abet such inconsistency, to 
support sich absurdity, or to continue in, 
such guilt, must afix a death-warrant to the 
existence of the Church. It is absolutely imn- 
possible that religion can flourish among A/an- 
stealers: and every mode except an immediate 
expulsion of obdurate Flesh-Dealcrs from the 
professed family of Christians, is a saaction 
of the crime, and a stigma on the BOOK. 

Reivember, Church-Oflicers, your awful 
responsibility ; with the illumination of the 
sacred volume around you, can you rest i: 
peace, with the conviction, that men are de- 
luded, and you enlighten them not: can you 
risk the scrutiny of the bar of God, with the con- 
demnation of impenitent Slave-holders trans- 
ferred to your negligence and intimidation ; 
who can calmly assert, or ‘who himself be- 
lieves, that Slavery is either equitable, merciful, 
or devotional ; who dare to profess himself a 
Presbyterian or a Methodist and be connected 
in any form with man-sicaling ? Slave- Drivers 
sow to the Flesh; of the Flesh they reap cor- 
ruption, Will you venture your everlasting 
felicity, upon a perhaps 3. pon an unfounded 
hope that so many have not been deceived ; 
when that perhaps, that hope are both de- 
clared by. the Book, to originate in idolatry, 
to exist through deceitfulness, and to end in 
Tophet ? 

_ You procrastinate—the enemy of souls usges 
you to cry ‘to-morrow ;—he advises the adop- 


nt 

| | 146 
ae tion of prudent and moderate reform; know- 
i ing that such amendment insures him more 
certain conquest: he excites dread, by the 
menace of worldly displeasure, and the varied 
reproaches and privations which accompany 
it: you listen, you assent to the seduction, 
and the evil augments. The duration of all 
terrestrial vanities hastens to its close : in the 
result, you are individually interested; who 
' can calmly anticipate righteous retribution up- 
| on the basis of man- stealing ? who can peace-. 
fully contemplate the exchange of worlds, with 
the never-ceasing horrors of domestic op- 
pressions unexpiated ? who can fearlessly a- 
wait the judgment of the Son of Man’with 
the diversified iniquity and hard-heartedness of 
slavery recorded against him ? 

Christians ! How long will you tacitly or 
\ i \¥ openly sanction, or actually engage in a thane: 
bl which includes every practicable iniquity 2 
a ea Can you conscientiously believe, that a slave- 
I Ra holder exhibrts that assimilation to the meek 
nt ad and lowly Jesus, which is indispensable ta 
A yal an enjoyment of the inheritance of the Suints 
cat in light? Are you prepared to answer all the 
tay demands, which equity may propound at the 
Heat | final examination of the last great day, when 
aa! the enormities of slavery are weighed in the 

i ‘Dilance ofthe Judge? If so, persevere—but 
{ if not—be alarmed, and instantaneously desist 
| te all Pee in this ungodliness. 


Hi TMG . 


SE) ETS TS 
ees a ane atcha 
Sa 


OT a as ay 


ere te Sa 


a 


i4t 


‘Lhe doctrine wiich our Lord incuicates, 
in his narrative of the wondrous events that 
will occur on the day of our resurrection; is 
tremendous condemnation to the merciless and 
the unjust. Every gospel affection is totally 
extinguished, by the principles whence slavery 
flows, by the tempers which are its inseparable 
companion, and by the dispositions which it 
invariably engenders. The approbation which 
the Son of Man will express of all those who 
exemplified Christian philanthropy in their 
intercourse with their fellow-creatures, as 
strongly argues the reprobation which Oppres- 
sors may expect, as if they had already heard 


j {the awful irrevocable denunciation, ‘* Depart, 


jye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for 


Hythe Devil and his Angels.” Kiss the Son, 
 Widlest he be angry, pluck out the right eye 
1 AUIaTY>: | os 
Gi fcut off the right hand, and amputate the right 

ul] foot ; though thy: clavec lho eangl r precious as 
—‘ithese necessary corporeal members, ei.” 
—@i|pate them. It is more profitable to thee, 
Ito pass through life in penury and scorn, and 


at death, to enter the Paradise of the Blessed, 
than to « 9joy all earthly good, and at thy 
mortal dissolution, to be plunged into’ the 


abyss of wo—where their worm dieth not— 
i and whe fire 1s not quenched. 


| 
See eee wien Fasoeee te aN ——— 
we Te ea es Se SSS mie . = = 
is aces Ea Se nomen po = EN ere A ee 
| ee oe ie SS — Ss oar) 


| ee Tren 


POSTSCEI-LT. 


—w:°' OS ft 


THE animadversions upon Tucker’s Black- 
| stone, are omitted. Our kingdom is not of 
Hithis world, and 
The papers referred to, on Page 21, were 


TWby request expunged. 


BOOK OF STRIFE! 


||Go FORTH: SLAY, BY THE TWO-EDGED 
diilsworp, ALL THE UNCIRCUMCISED PuIL- 


ee oe 


Seah 8 TN on egg Se eee es 
oe La ee SSeS Se 


ANIMADVERSIONS. 


— 3 aa 


THE authority of titled names should never im 
pede the censures of truth: and the sanction which 
is ziven by them to error, ought ever to excite the 
more resolute opposition of those who contend carn- 
estly for the fuith once delivered to the saints, ‘ Lec- 
tures on the subjects of Moral and Political Puilo- 
sophy, by Samuel Stanhope Smith, D. D. L. L. De 
are peculiarly deserving attention; as the doctrines 
advanced in them, uphold involuntary servitude. 

“Is Slavery on any ground consistent’ with the 
natural laws of justice and humanity ? Slavery is con- 
trary both to justice and humanity. The whole of 
the African trade for slaves, 1s among the most atro- 
cious inroads upon justice and humanity which have 
ever been practised in any age or by any nation. Tae 
hypocritical pretences which are made to justify ik 
are as impudent, as the traffic is inhuman. Men de- 
ceive themselves continually by false pretences, in 
order to justify the slavery which is convenient for them. 

Is that slavery which was unj: stin its o-giz, equally 
unjust in its continuance 2? All men condemn: thc 
barbarity of dragging the simple Africans from their 
Native country. 

To confer on our American slaves, liberty; and 
otherwise, to meliorate their condition, are certaiuly 
objects worthy of a humane legislation. But private 
jusuce,* and natural selfishness will oppose imsuper- 
able difficulties to its excution. The citizens of these 
states hold frofierty in slaves to a very large amount, 
acquired undef the sanction of the laws. The laws 
could not equitably compel thcm to make a sacrifice 
of so great value, to the convenience and comfort of 


* Either the Philosopher or the Printer omitted two 
letters of this word, it should read, injustice. 


M 


a 
a 


<x 


STREET 


oS ae 


ae 
LCE. 


ao 


Siete nate 


= 


SS et F 


any class of men.t Neither justice nor humanity re- 
quires that the master who has become the innocent 
possessor of that property, should impoverish himself 
for the benefit of his slave. Their freedom might 
be obtained, by the laws favoring the grant of a 
jieculium to slaves to be employed wholly for their 
own benefit, which might be sufficient to produce a 
revenue, adequate to the purchase of his own free- 
dom. So mild is the form of slavery at present, that 
it is customary to exact of any field-slave only a de. | 
finite portion of labour in the day, called @ Task. 
This task is usually calculated according to the strength 
of the weakest hand. What an admirable opportunity, 
with other portions of time which are already allowed 
them, for relaxation and amusement, to improve a 
peculium 2} 

Slavery is preparing at some future period, much 
individual misery, and frequent and dangerous con- 
yulsions for the republic. It is a volcano which sle -ps 
for a time only to burst at last upon the unsuspecting 
tranquility of the country with a more terrible destruc- 
tion.* 

‘“ T have generally witnessed a humane treatment 
exercised towards that dependent and humiliated race 
of men. The negro in America is condemned to the 
drudgery of perpetual labor, cut off trom every means 
of improvement, conscious of his degraded state, in 
the midst of freemen who regard him with contempt, 
made to feel his inferiority, and hopeless, of ever en- 
joying any great melioration of his condition. How 
ey are the negros who are enabled cither to read 
or write! What society can subsist between a master 
and a slave? What would there be in that society, 
——— - . 

+ Is this preaching deliverance to the captive ? 

$ The Students at Nassau, from the Southern States, 
when they heard the Lecturer thus gravely delineate 
their Negro-quarters, must certainly have been con- 
%Sulsed with lauyhter, 
® Smith's Moral and. Political Philosophy. Lecture 21. 


\ 
| “hen we cousider the gencral chavacters, occupations 


Foe 


and conversations of those masters favorable to im 
provement? Among the blacks is misery cnough. 
With what fine tints can imagination invest the rags, 
the dirt, the nakedness so often seen in a quarter of 
Negro-laborers, or the coarse familiarity and promis- 
cuous intercourse permitted and encouraged among the 
American slaves?” * 

Humanity { Yndless toil, no instruction, wretched 
degradation without hope of change, misery, naked- 
ness, filth and libidinous desires uncontrolied, under 
the tyranny of masters with litte higher moral advan- 
tages. Slavery is the utmost atrocity aad misery ; 
inequitable in its origin, but righteous and innocent 


in its prolongation. Though Christianity necessarily 
’ 


abolishes the system, and though all its defence is 
impudent hypocrisy, yet it is unjust, and inhuman 
to emancipate the slaves. tf 

Dr Smith’s general proposition is undeniable. Sla- 
very is the utmost injustice. Every affectionate Par. 
ent would rather be divested of his terrestrial wealth, 
than be deprived of his children, who must immedi- 
ately be condemned to eternal vassalage. This kidnap- 
ping comprises every inhumanity: and the act involves 

* Smith on the human Species. 

t+ When William Wilberforce first proposed the ce 
bolition of the Slave-trade and through ail the subse- 
guent discussions, Charles Jamcs Fox ofifiosed the 
odious traffic for its injustice and cruclty ; aud enter- 
taining a deep sense of its unrighteouness, he uniformly 
contended, that no prolitical necessity, or any consider- 
ation uf firivate benefit, could justify its continuance 
for one moment. “ Were it practicable to divest ser- 
vitude of its severities ; still as this execrable slavery 
violates the rights and comfiels the submission of its 
victime, it can be sanctioned by no country which re- 
gards the maxime of a@ fpiolicy fiure, liberal, and 
magnanimous.” 


is 


{ iti f 
Hi if 
iil ’ 
Hl 
a equal criminality in the perpetrator, with the misery 
ih ii of the victim) The Philosopher should enher have clo- 
A } | sed his lecture with this position, or conti:acd it in 
f 


conformity with self-evident truth. But he intimates, 
‘that the iniquity of slavery has been removed by the 
v protraction of the crime, and the increase of the of- 
i fenders. The grave manner in which the inquiry is 
propounded, “is that slevery which was unjust in its 
origin, equally unjust in its continuance ?’’ must have 
been intended as an ironical refutation of slave-dealers. 
Can an atrocious crime be transformed cither in its 
natute or guilt, alter the lapse of two centurics, or 
by a dificrence in the place where it was committed? 
Man-stealing has existed from the period in which 
Nimrod who was a mighty hunter lived. Alter the 
lapse of ages, Moses denounced the sentence of death 
upon every one who stfealeth, or selicth, or makes 
merchandize of his brothcr, or “dctains him inslavery.” 
Thirty three hundred years have since expired; and 
the additional sanctions of the Gospel to the ancient 
Jaw have been promulgated. Is that man-theft which 
was condemned from Mount Sinai, at this era, equally 
disgusting and unrighteous? The Aidnajfifer, says 
the Moralist. is become the innocent possessor of that 
property :” which was stolen. Thus, antiquity of origin 
and continuance in the practice, would transform the 
basest turpitude into the noblest virtue; for, although 
the Lecturer avows, that the original robbery of the 

Negros was “the most atrocious inroad upon justice 7 

and humanity ever practised, “ he also affirms, that 4) 

£ a modern Slaye-holder has innocently acquired, and 9) 

righteously, beneficently detains his fellow-immortals 

in the most ignominious, oppression and crucl bon- 

dage. f 

Dr. Smith exemplifies the difficulties, which a mat. 

must surmount, who endeavours to combine truth 

with error, and rectitude of principle with corruption 

of practice. A descendant of the stolen Negros cannot 

be enslayed with greater equity and bencyolence thar 


SABES = 


Pn eee ee 


| 


iho 
EE | 
a 
a a 
ie 
mii q 
A | 
i) @ 
V4 
t] 

Me) ut 
4) 8 
wh & 
a ih 
te. 
wt S 
ig 
{ i} 


Af” 


his ancestors ; and itis the very acme of delusion, to 
assert, that ‘the form of slavery at present is mild, 
or that a humane treatment is exercised towards the 
coloured people. Evangelical philanthrophy is as far 
removed from the daily exhibitions of Slave-Dealersy 
as Lazarus in Abrahain’s bosom is separated from 
Dives in Hell: by a great gulf fixed. Some few 
servants who perform the domestic duties are tolerably 
fed and decently clothed ; but this indulgence is mercly 
for ostentation like the household ornaments, and for 
a deception upon visitors. To ascertain the Slave’s 
real character and overwhelming wretchedness, “the 
rags, dirt, nakedness, coarse familiarity and promis- 
cuous intercourse of the Negro-quarter ” must be 
investigated : and the most transitory inspection evinces, 
that “ the admirable opportunity to improve a pecu= 
lium” ig the drudgery of perpetual labour ; 7’ the 
«“ humane treatment,” is the mortification or contempt, 
the sensation of inferiority, and despair of amendment: 
the mildness of slavery is the deprivation of knowiedge, 
and the lacerations of the scourge ; and the beneficence 
of the Slave-Driver is the cxtinction of his captive’s 
comfort, the insufficient and often unwholeseme food 
which is allotted him, the withholding necessary rai- 
ment, domestic requisites, ven an unhealthy hovel, 
and the con-tant dread of a separation from his «s- 
sociates, endeared to him by a mutual participation 
in similar misery. 

D1. Smith’s Morals and Politics are cqually extra- 
ordinary. All history corroborates the truth, that more 
danger attaches to the Union from the internal than 
{rom any external foes. The increase of slaves, articles 
of merchandize, is by every means facilitated, as it adds 
to the property of the kidnapper. What an heinous 
transgression against God and Man! Mercenary, avari- 
cious oppressors are authorized to steal the child from 
its Mother’s breast for endless servitude. What a 
libel on the Republic! That from any motive, such 
an atrocious crime, for one moment, should be per- 


NAS SPee & Se 


ay epteeannre 
ee Rea eae 


aires 


le 
OTE “ae 

a 
Sg SEE 


ne iene aii asinine 
> : 


mitted with impunity. What a burlesque ! Philosopiiy 
seriously declares; that a man who &as kidnapped 
all the caloured persons on his plantation, * has be- 
come the innocent possessor of that firofierty. 

Their numbers and strength augment; a sense of 
their power is also more dcefi-roorced, and permanent; 
ere long the day of deliverance for them must arrive, 
Their motto, “peaceably if we can, forcibly if we 
must.” & Let my profile go ;” was the demand of 
Moses, until the Red-Sea received the Tyrants who 
had oppressed the children of Israel. Slave-holders 
are heither in their devotional nor beneficent charac- 
teristics, much superior tothe Egyptian Task Mastere : 
‘They are pre-eminent for infidelity, irreligion, dissi- 
pation, and insepsibility to the misery which their 
avarice and luxury generate 

The voice of onr Brother’s blaod cries to Heaver 


“rom the ground ; aud national reformation or national 


punishment, cannot be far removed 

We are sometimes to consider a nation in a moral 
light, as a person. consisting: of a body, a soul and 
a duration of life. All the people who compose this 
Natiun are considered as one body : the maxims which 
direct its conduct, constitute its spirit. The ages cf 
jis continuance are the duration of its life. On this 
principle, we attribute to those who. compose a nation 
Low, what agrecs with those only who formerly com- 
poserl it; and to this whole body, not only. those physi- 
cal, but even those moral acttons, which belong only 
to one part of it: and that part of a nation which con- 
tinues, is responsible for the crimes of that which sub- 
sists no more. Our Saviour considers a nation asa 
moral person, who is responsible at one time for crimes 
committed at another, who.hath been borne with, but 
hath abused that forbearance, and at length, is punished 
both for committing the crimes, and for abusing the 
forbearance that had been granted.* 


= 


3 Matthew 23, 29, 30, Luke li, 47—51. 


a 


~ 


“ If that part of a nation which subsists in one 
period. hath no union of time with that which sub- 
sisted in another pcriod, it may have even four dif- 
ferent unions of another kind. An union of interese, 
if it avail itself of the crimes of its predecessors ; an 
union of efi/robation, if it applaud the shameful causes 
of its prosperity; an union of emulation, if it follow 
such examples as ought to be detested ; and an union 
of accumulation, if instead of making amend for these: 
faults, it reward the depravity of those who commit 
them. If men peaceably enjoy the usurpations of their 
ancestors, they are usurpers, as their predecessors were, 
and the justice of God may make these responsible 
for the usurpations of those ; and tius it will be; if 
you avail yourselves of the crimes of your predeces- 
sors, if you extenuate the guilt, if you imitate the 
practice, and if you fill up the measure of their ini- 
quities. The prosperity of public bodies, when it is 
founded in iniquity, is an edifice, which with its basis 
wili be presently sunk and gone. t 

“ The trade in human flesh is so scandalous, that 
it is to the last degree infamous to suffer it to be 
carried on by the authority of the government of any 
country. With regard to a regulation of slavery, my 
destestation of its existence induces me to know no 
such thing asa regulation of robbery and a restriction 
of murder. There is no medium, the legislature must 
cither abolish it, or plead guilty to all the iniquity 
with which it is attended.” $ 

“ Have the recorded enormitics of slavery excited 
due compu:ction in the national conscience? Its evils 
and iniquity we have seen, we have professed to lament 
them; we have promised to forsake them. But what 
has been the result?) We cherish slavery; we hug 
it to our bosoms; and we think to sanction the foul 
embrace by pleading interesi in opposition to the un- 


+ Saurin. 
Gq Charles James Fox. 


we 


eee 
as rim 
RSA OS 


Orit aes ee 


Se 


ee 


cua oh 


eR ee ee ne 


 emitemi oat ste ie 


ee ee 
so" oo sy. 
a 

—- 


naan i tne a Naas tet in teat sittin 
ohegreqeene ant - rT TES am 
eS Sr ee : ‘ 
CS TET 
— = - 


“ 


sophisticated dictates of conscience, and the express 
and unequivocal commands of God. What is this but 
a deliberate rejection of the divine authority, anda 
deliberate preference of the service of Mammon to 
that of God? And whatever guilt ariscs from this 
source is properly, strictly and undeniably national.”’ § 

Dr. Smith asserts, that all the pretences to justify 
slavery are impudent hypocrisy, only equalled by the 
inhumanity of the traffic. If the Slave-holder offers 
one plea except the broad defence of open shameless 
depravity ; 1f he make a solitary excuse distinct from 
the inordinate jove of wealth ; all his equivocations 
are the summit of boundless dissimulation: and © if 
a Church-Officer were a foilower of Paul the aed, 
he would address such a man, especially if he seeks 
io turz anay others from the faith; O full of all 
subtility, and ali mischief, thou child of the Devil, thou 
ezemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to jier- 
vert the right ways of the Lord ?* 

Dr. Smith afirms, that the Slave-holder innocently 
possesses his property ; that justice, humanity and 
compassion require not the manumission of slaves, 
that a free people would not suffer a Legisiature 
thus to dispcse of any other portion of thei: property, 
and that the public safety necessarily prevents a speely 
accomplishment of the emancipation of tue coloured 
population, an event so desirable to humanity. 

How can a Christian possess that wiich he knew 
was stolen? He who would gravely profess, that a 
slave is honest froferty, is a subject tor the lunatic 
Hospital, not for moval discipline ? How can a Phi- 


¥ Christian Observer. 

* Acts i3. 6—12. 

t Against euch,“ moral philosophy ;” he whose blood 
does not dnil with Christian indignation, is so far from 
being a discifle of that Jesus who pfironounced his 
Ayfocritical Auditors a generation of vipers, that he 
aught not to be denominated, man. 


losopier inculcate that Slavery is ihe most atrocious 
injustice, inbumanity and misery, and notwithstanding 
declare, that he who bas kidnapped his servants, is 
not bound, by justice and humanity to impoverish hine 
self for his Slave? How dare an Expositor of the 
Book sanction the detention of men in Slavery? 

“ What free people would allow their Legislature 
to dispose in the same manner, of any other portion 
of their property ?”? But Negros or their descendants 
never could be property. A frec people and hold 
slaves? Republicans, and traffic their fellow-creatures ! 
Democrats, and 4uslave those who are horn with natural, 
inherent and inalienable rights ! and Christians all — 
NO: such persons arc enemies of the Republic, 
humanity, religion and God. 

Dr. Smith avers, that it is unjust, inhuman and 
impracticalle to emancipate the slaves: but the Lec« 
ture’s equity and benevolence are totally indescribable. 
Theft is atrocious in’ Africa, but in America, it is 
innocent. Kidnapping is the most diabolical barbarity 
on the Gold Coast, but in Columbia, it is cruel to 
impede persons from perpetrating this enormity. “ To 
impoverish himself for the benefit of his slave | but 
this is nota case of charity. The slave was originally 
stolen ; all the produce of his labour except the most 
wretched and meagre fure and clothing has been pur- 
Joined; and the services of his children which ought 
to bave been benefited and requited tke Parent’s cure, 
have only added to a Tnicf’s riches. The wealth of 
every Siave-hoider in the World is as obviously, an 
unjust acquisition, as if he had enteved a Bank and 
escaped with a load of its nates: alas + the iater and 
the interior sin is punished, ard a mest Chormous 
crime which virtually includes the direct and simut- 
tancous transgression of the whole decalogue is le- 
galized and rewarded ; men being honorable in pro- 
portion to the magnitude of their robberies. 

Shall interest affect our person only? Which is 
most urijust, to manu:nita slave unrightcously doomed 


f ? 
ty e 
| and detained for servitude, or to sanction ihe endless 
deprivation of all his hopes and enjoyment? Which 
is most inhuman? To authorize the union of families 
and relations, or to sever them in eternal separation ; 
Is not the plea, that emancipation is impracticable, 
the most impudent hypocrisy, and the most glaring 
absurdity ever propounded for contemplation? Covetous 
men will not adopt the measure, but were every 
Slave-holder impressively certified of the iniquity and 
danver of his oppressions ; were he sensible that ex- 
clusion from heaven would attend a life and death in 
impenitence, after evangelical illumifation had devel- 
oped his guilt and its consequences; were he con- 
yinced that the day of retribution would unfold for 
him horrors inconceivable and everlasting; and did 
he realize equal conscientious smiting upon this sin, 
} which he has experienced upon other transgressions ; 
ult the Jubilee truinpet would soon proclaim universal 
i 


AES 


deliverance to the captive. Can any: suppositious ex- 
pediency, any dread of political disorder, or any pri- 
} vate advantage, justify the prolongation of corruption, 
the enormity of which is PY ami or repel the holy 
claim to its extinction? WThe system is so entirely 
| corrupt, that it admits of no cure, but by a total and 
: immediage, abolition. For a gradual eswancipation és 
/ i a virtual recognition of the right, and establishes 
V9 q the rectitude of the practice. If it be just for one 
ee moment, it is hallowed for ever; and if it be inequit- 
ied able, not a day shouid it be tolerated, : 

No excuses for turpitude, no defence of crime can 
i possibiy be velid. For creatures under the govern- 
ment of divine Revelation, the question what is most 
Polisic, ouzht never to be asked; but what is our 
9 ce duty?) No man can derive any self-justification from 
; the apology, that the sin is strictly chargeable upon 
the nation, and that individuals are not incuipated in ~ 
a ’ the guilt; for ‘national regard to the externals of 
) yee religion cannot avert national judgments, so long as 


rourder and crue) oppression, are sanctioned by law, 
or permitted to be perpetrated with impunity.” $ 

Dr. Smith is a lucid demonstration of Apostolic 
truth : evil communications corrufit good manners. The 
most inflexible opponent of Man-stealing, by a long 
residence among Slave-Holders, aithough he never 
actually participated in the traffic of souls, experiences 
a torpor of indignation, an insensibility to human wo, 
a deadness of evangelical philanthropy, and a dimie 
nution of his high sense of moral rectitude, which, 
were he to enter into a m:nute and sedulous investi- 
pation of his former conscientiousness, contrasted with 
his present indifference, reminds him of the indignant 
reply; What! is thy servant @ dog that he should 
do this great thing ? force the mortifying lamcntation ; 
Againet thee have I sinned and done this evil in thy 
sight ! and impel the melancholy prayer, Deliver me 
from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my sal- 
vation ; then shall I 6c innocent from the great trans 
gression ! 

Dr. Smith’s natural feelings revolt from slavery ; 
but by vindicating its adherents, he has involved hime 
self in a labyrinth; from which by no ingenuity, can 
he be extricated. What more preposterous! an A- 
merican Republican, who boasts of his freedom, driving 
slaves. What more injurious! A Philosopher, in- 
culcating that the most atrocious inroad upon justice 
and humanity on the coast of Africa, is mildness, c- 
quity and benevolence ; in the interior of Coiumbia. 
What more contradictory! a Christian Minister’s 
“ Moral Philosophy,’ corfuting the self-evident vcri- 
ties of his own Confession of Faith! This inconsist- 
ency originates in that fear of man which bringeth a 
snare. Know ye not that the friendship of the world 
is enmity with God: whosoever therefore will be @ 
friend of the world, is the enemy of God Such 
a profession of the Gospel as gives no offence to a 


ce 


+ Score. 


\ 


es 


ee 


world that lietit in wickedness, will leave a man te 
perish with the encmics of Christ ’+¢ 
Dr. ’Sniith’s palliations are inefficient. No sophistry 
can disguise the principle which he insinuates, the 
innocence of the present Slave-holder—the justice of 
his claim to the slaves, and the benignity with which 
they are maintained The Professor’s facts are as 
unaccountable as his morals and pelitics—in what sec- 
tio of the Union—all that Aumanity, miidness, rclaxa- 
‘tion and amusements, but which he himself graphi- 
cally defines to be the drudgery of perpetual labour, 
ignorance, bestiality and despair—aie discernible, not 
only defies the researches of Philosophy, but the dis- 
coveries of Geography If they are circumscribed by 
Vii any department of literature, it is within the Astrono- 
iit mev’s circle :—LUNAR observations. In direct une- 
y|  quivocal contradiction to Dr. Smith’s Philosophy ; we 
Be assert; that no Slave-holder is innocent; that he is 
an unjust, cruel, criminal Kidnapper, who is guilty 
of the most atrocious transgression against Goa and 
Man: that it is the most infatuated delusion for such 
men to believe, or the mostinipudent hypocrisy in them 
to profess themselves innocent, that whole counties may 
be traversed in which comparatively few persons can be 
traced, who distribute as many comforts or as much 
care to their slaves as their horses; that the gcneral 
management of the slave is a complication of indescribe 
abie barbarity: that Christian Professors are not 
exempt from the enormity of the crime, or the appli- 
cation of the charge; and «very MWan-stealer is DARED 
_either to refute the doctrine or to disfircoc the ac- 
cusation. ; 3 


eee 


+ Scott. 


ST aes 


—— 


mete 


or 
a 2 
> ern 


SS ee ST 


SS i hr eet 


FINTIS, 


See 


1) 


+ 


t 


| 
“8 


DATE DUE 


6. 2 a 
rs 
ee eee 

wre | 
Fee). Oe 
ahi. oe 
ee Rae | 

fi ae 

a 

ee: | 

He Ae ee 
ae es 
Pee ee 


DEMCO 38-297 


MIU 


AIELLO 


